


Are We Out of the Woods Yet?

by sky_faith



Category: Arrow (TV 2012), DC's Legends of Tomorrow (TV)
Genre: Ava is getting deported and needs a green card, F/F, Fake Dating, Like very briefly - Freeform, Minor Amaya Jiwe/Zari Tomaz, Mutual Pining, Past Nyssa al Ghul/Sara Lance, Sara needs to be promoted, Slow Burn, The Proposal AU, You don't need to have watched Arrow to really get this story but it helps
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-02-05
Updated: 2019-05-03
Packaged: 2019-10-22 15:22:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 8
Words: 27,907
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17665079
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sky_faith/pseuds/sky_faith
Summary: Ava Sharpe is the Editor-in-Chief for The Waverider Magazine in NYC. When she faces deportation back to her home in Canada, she does the only thing she can think of: tell her assistant, Sara Lance, she has to marry her for the green cardORThe Proposal-based Avalance AU nobody asked for





	1. Chapter 1

A typical weekday starts at 6:30am for Ava Sharpe. She gets up, brushes her teeth, showers, fixes her hair and make-up, gets dressed, and heads out the door by 8am to get to work for 8:30. She doesn’t technically have to be at work until 9am but everyone expects her half an hour earlier since she has never been any later than that. If she runs as much as 5 minutes late for her half hour early, it would 100% be something everyone noticed. As editor-in-chief, Ava doesn’t really have to worry about any consequences for coming in later than 9am but that doesn’t matter to her. She likes being there early to get some extra work done and will stay as late as necessary to get any and all finished. She has made it a part of her schedule and so has everyone else at the Waverider Magazine.

A typical weekday starts at 5am for Sara Lance. She gets up, brushes her teeth, goes for a quick run, showers, fixes her hair and make-up, gets dressed, grab a piece of toast, and heads out the door by 7. Before work, Sara picks up two coffees and an everything bagel, light on the cream cheese. That last part is especially important. If there’s too much cream cheese, everyone is going to have a bad morning and Sara cannot be the cause of it. She would not be the cause of it. Sara gets to work by 8:20 every morning even though her shift doesn’t start until 9am. She has to get there 40 minutes early because if she is later than her boss then her boss won’t have her coffee, her coworkers will be left to fend for themselves, and Sara will be in deep shit for “turning up late” even if she’s late for being early. As an assistant, Sara thinks this is utter bullshit but she’d rather keep her job than argue with one of the most powerful women in the journalism world.

This particular December morning starts like any other for Ava. She gets up and heads to work with no issue. Her assistant and her coffee and bagel were waiting for her in her office and everything seemed to be in order. For Sara, however, things start off a little rocky. The wonderful (read: terrible) thing about phone alarms is that, sometimes, your phone can die. So, on this particular morning, instead of her normal 5am wake-up, Sara jolts upright at 6:30am with barely enough time to shower and look presentable for work before she has to be out the door. She has to rush to the coffee shop that’s down the street from her apartment and waits in what seems to be the world’s longest line to get her order. Luckily, the woman working behind the counter has her usual ready.

“Thank you so much. I owe you my life,” Sara says to her. That gets a giggle in response and a smile from the barista.

“It’s no problem,” she says. “Have a great day.” Sara just smiles, grabs the coffees and bagel bag and runs out the door. She runs down the stairs to the subway platform, dodging other commuters, and then not-so-patiently waits for her train. As she’s standing there, she notices some writing on the cup in her right hand.

_“Kendra ❤ Call me 555-2213”_

Sara smiles to herself and rolls her eyes slightly. At least she now has plans for tonight. After a stressful morning like this, she could use a little fun.

Her train is late. Of all the mornings for her train to be late, why this one? Sara groans as she checks her watch and sees it’s already 8 o’clock. Right as she’s considering jumping into a cab to get to work quicker, the subway car comes barreling into the station. It’s a 10 minute ride to her station and then a 10 minute walk to Ava’s office. She has timed both of those things to make mornings like this more calculated. It also helps her to know if she is definitely going to be late or not. If she is, she’s able to tell Ray to warn the others and then take things from there.

To say Ava Sharpe is a strict boss is an understatement. Sara loves working for the company and it’s her dream to make it up in the ranks to an editorial position but, to get there, she needs to be Ava’s assistant and be a damn good one at that. Ava likes things in a very particular fashion. If things aren’t up to those standards, whatever it is that needed to be done has to be done again. Sara can’t count how many times Ava has sent back documents to people because it wasn’t worded correctly. If she didn’t have to be the one delivering those papers back to them and telling them everything Ava said, she’d think it was pretty badass.

The 10 minutes to get to her station are the longest 10 minutes of Sara’s life. She checks her watch after running up the stairs onto the street. 7 minutes to make the 10 minute walk. _I missed my run anyways_ , Sara thinks as she secures the lids of the coffees. She rolls her shoulders back once and starts off in a sprint down the street, dodging pedestrians left and right. Right outside her building, a man Sara sort of recognizes (Gary?) drops all of his papers and bends down to pick them up. Sara has no time to slow down and stop so she throws an apology over her shoulder as she jumps over him like she used to do for the hurdles in high school track. She kicks the swinging door open with her foot as her hands are still occupied with the coffees and bagel and runs over to the closing elevator door, yelling for the people to hold it. She makes it just in time to squeeze between the shutting doors, no thanks to any of the occupants.

“Oh hey, Sara,” Nate says from one corner of the elevator.

“Nate,” Sara says while staring down the numbers counting the floors. “Thanks for holding the doors.”

“Oh, yeah,” Nate says with an awkward laugh. “Sorry ‘bout that. I, uh, didn’t see you coming.”

Sara smiles to herself knowing that he’s lying straight through his teeth but not caring enough to call him out on it. The elevator signals her floor and she checks her watch. 8:19am. Early for being early even with all the obstacles. She has just enough time to bring the bagel and coffee into Ava’s office to place it on her desk and return to her own desk to log on to her computer. As soon as she’s all logged in, her messenger app opens on the desktop, pinging an alert from Ray Palmer, the editor who sits by the door.

**Raymond** (08:27)

_Director incoming_

Sara smiles at the nickname used in the message. The Director is the nickname Sara had given Ava due to her strict nature and clean-cut appearance. Never a hair out of place in that carefully crafted bun and her suit is always clean and pressed. It’s almost unfair how seemingly effortless the professional appearance is on Ava. She quickly exists out of the app before Ava gets over to that side of the office.

Ava walks down the hall towards Sara’s desk and her office with confidence that could kill a man with one look. Her back as straight as a board and blonde hair in her usual tight bun, she looks exactly as she does every morning. Never has Sara seen this woman look even slightly tired this early.

“Good morning, Ms. Lance,” Ava says as she passes her desk.

“Ms. Sharpe, morning,” Sara replies with a polite smile. Ava returns the smile very briefly before entering her office. Sara stands up to follow her and give her a run down of what the day is looking like for her so far but stops as soon as she sees Ava inspecting her coffee cup.

“Uh, Ms. Lance?”

“Yes?”

“Is this my coffee?” Ava asks, giving her a quizzical look. Sara flounders for a second. Of course it’s Ava’s coffee. Why would she be questioning that?

“Yeah, of course. Why wouldn’t it be your coffee?”

“I just ask because I have no idea who Kendra is or why she would want me to call her,” Ava says, putting down the coffee cup onto her desk. Sara feels all the life drain from her body in that second but quickly pulls it together. She clears her throat as Ava gives her a look that is hard to read. If Sara isn’t mistaken, though, she sees amusement behind her eyes.

“Oh, you know how coffee shops are,” Sara says with a laugh.

“I don’t think I do, when you put it that way. Enlighten me,” Ava says, sitting down behind her desk. Sara silently curses her but plasters on her best fake smile.

“Well,” Sara starts, then swallows hard trying to think, “They put orders on every single coffee cup. Kendra, the barista, took my order this morning. She had no way of knowing which was my cup so must have put her number and name on both.” A pressure releases off of her chest with that smooth recovery.

“Is that so?” Ava asks, taking a sip from the cup.

“Only explanation I have,” Sara says. There is no way she is fessing up to teaching herself to like black coffee to make things easier just in case a mix-up like this ever happened. She has more pride than that.

“So you have it on your cup too?” Ava says, calling Sara’s bluff.

“I did, yes,” Sara says, ready for the comeback. “I would show you but I already threw it out in the bins outside the building.” Sara makes a mental note to throw her cup out in her coworker Zari’s trash can when she can get a moment away.

Ava, seemingly pleased with that explanation, opens her bagel and motions for Sara to give her the run-down. After Sara’s quick layout of the day, she pauses and remembers one last detail.

“Oh, and Mr. Heywood wants to see you in his office at 3. He says it’s pretty important.” Ava takes a deep breath in and closes her eyes.

“Okay,” she lets out, “but at 3:15 sharp, if I’m not out, come into the office and make up some sort of pressing matter to get me out of there.”

“So the usual Hank Procedure?” Sara smiles. Ava doesn’t smile back and instead stands up from her desk and grabs a few papers.

“Follow me. We have a few things to do this morning,” Ava says as she walks straight past Sara and out of her office. Sara holds her breath as they walk past her desk, praying that Ava doesn’t see the completely blank cup sitting on it. They make it past her desk without incident and immediately turn into Gary’s office.

Gary is a dorky looking man with glasses and a nice smile. Sara always secretly likes seeing him around but he is definitely one of the more annoying people in the office. After getting a better look at Gary’s slightly disheveled suit and papers scattered all over his desk, Sara can positively confirm it was him that she saw this morning on the front steps. He looks up from trying to organize the things on his desk when the two women enter the room. Ava takes a seat in front of his desk and he straightens up in his chair. Seeing that all the chairs are now occupied in the cubby they call Gary’s office, Sara leans up against the bookshelf he has in the back.

“Gary,” Ava says not coldly but not particularly warmly, “How are you this morning?” Gary’s wide eyes grow wider at the seemingly simple question.

“I’m doing alright today, Ms Sharpe, thank you for asking,” he responds while glancing over Ava’s shoulder to make eye contact with Sara, flashing her a goofy-yet-nervous grin. Sara just stares straight ahead, not knowing exactly what is going on. “Is there something I can help you with?”

“Well, Gary, there was something you could have helped me with,” Ava responds calmly. “Do you remember two weeks ago when I asked you to try and get Taylor Swift to get on board for the cover of next February’s issue?” Gary gulps.

“Yes.”

“Do you remember when I said it is your top priority? And that even a try would suffice since she’s a hard woman to get a hold of nowadays?” Gary gulps again and looks down at his hands.

“Yes, I do,” he all but whispers. “I did try, though.”

“You did?” Ava asks flatly.

“I did,” he says, a little stronger now. Sara knows exactly where this is headed, however, and immediately feels very uncomfortable in the room.

“When did you, Gary? Because I’m looking at your call records for your office phone here and I don’t see any number associated with her or her team. Now, if I’m wrong there, please do tell me. Otherwise, lying? Not your best idea, Gare,” Ava pauses a moment, waiting for Gary’s response. The nickname basis she’s on with Gary throws Sara for a loop but she continues try to keep her face as void of any emotion as possible. Gary has reverted back to silence and Ava stands back up, straightening her blazer as she does, “Gary, we’ve talked about this.”

“I know,” he says, back to barely above a whisper.

“You know that this was not your first warning about something along these lines, Gare. My hands are tied here.” Gary appears to be studying his hands as if he had never seen them before that very moment and Ava sighs. Sara wishes she could be literally anywhere else but right there in that moment. “I have no other choice but to fire you. Your office has to be cleaned out by 6 tonight.” With that, Ava turns and leaves Sara in the office with a visibly distraught Gay in her wake. Sara whips her head to watch Ava walk out and slowly looks back at the man sitting at the desk.

“I’m sorry,” she says quickly before following after her boss. As soon as they reach Ava’s office,

Sara turns to her. “Hey, Ava?”

“Yes?” Ava responds as she takes a seat behind her desk.

“ _What_ was _that_?”

“That was Gary not doing what was asked of him and facing the consequences. I thought that was pretty self-explanatory,” Ava says nonchalantly.

“Okay, yes,” Sara says, taking a step towards Ava’s desk. “Yes, that part was self-explanatory but you know Taylor Swift is all but impossible to reach and you know we’re reaching the end of December so he’s been working on January’s issue every chance he can get. Why now? And why did I have to come?”

“Well,” Ava looks down at the paper that was sitting on her mostly clear desk, “He should be able to multitask if he’s working at the Waverider so that should not have been a problem. I brought you because you’re my assistant. Oh, and I need you to type up a report about what happened in there a few minutes ago.”

Sara shouldn’t be surprised. Ava pulls things like this all the time. It’s not shocking that she just used Sara so she could transcribe the brief meeting but it still is frustrating. Instead of arguing or asking any further questions, Sara retreats to her desk and does what she was told to do. When 2:50 rolls around, Sara peeks her head into Ava’s office to remind her of the meeting she has with Hank Heywood, the director of the legal team for Waverider.

* * *

 

When Ava enters the office on the top floor of the building, she is met with not only Hank Heywood but the head of Human Resources, Amaya Jiwe, as well. Immediately, Ava can feel it in her gut that this is not going to be a fun meeting.

“Mr. Heywood, Ms. Jiwe, how can I help you today?” she says as she approaches the desk.

“Ms. Sharpe, thank you for joining us,” Hank says, pouring himself some whiskey from the bottle on his desk. “Please, take a seat.” Ava glances over at Amaya who gives her a small smile while sitting down in one of the leather chairs in front of Hank’s desk.

“Is there something the matter?” She asks, trying to keep the nerves she’s feeling out of her voice.

“Actually, Ms. Sharpe, there is,” he says, circling the desk to lean up against it right in front of Ava. “I spoke with your immigrations officer.”

“Oh? Everything should be just fine there. I submitted the request for my visa renewal a little while back now,” Ava says, straightening up in her chair.

“There was an issue. Your visa has been denied for renewal.”

“Denied?”

“Denied. You also had 3 of the forms submitted late.”

“I’m sorry, that’s impossible. I submitted them well before the deadline. There must be some sort of mistake,” Ava feels her face go hot as she tries to subside the panic she’s feeling in this situation.

“I’m sorry, Ms. Sharpe but there was no mistake. You’re being deported back to Vancouver.”

“Deported?” Ava laughs dryly. “This is crazy! My forms were right on time, if not early. I can’t be deported!”

“You can make a request to try again but you’re going to have to leave the country for at least a year,” Hank says, putting down the glass that he never actually took a sip from. Ava feels light headed at the amount of information being thrown at her in that moment. There is absolutely no way this could have happened. Her mind, of course, goes directly back to her job.

“Okay,” she starts. “I can always work remotely from Vancouver. It’s the 21st century. I will definitely still be able to manage the team...”

“Actually,” Amaya speaks up, “I’m so sorry but, because you wouldn’t be a US-citizen, we can’t have you employed at our company.”

“So who’s going to run the Waverider?”

“Gary,” Hank says.

“ _Gary?_ As in Gary Green?”

“Is there another Gary who is an editor that works here, Ava?” Hank asks plainly.

“Actually, sir,” Ava starts just as plainly, “there is no editor by the name of Gary who works here. I fired Gary this morning.”

“Well we better get him on the phone and tell him the happy news then,” Hank says, still expressionless.

“I’m sorry but with all due respect, I can run this magazine from anywhere in this world. _Gary_ can’t run it from his office.”

“Our hands are tied, Ms. Sharpe,” Hank says. Ava feels the blow of her own words from that morning hitting her. He looks like he’s about to continue when there’s a short knock on the door and Sara peeks her head in.

“Ms. Sharpe? I have Professor Stein on the phone looking for you,” Sara says.

“It’ll have to wait,” Ava quickly replies, forgetting for a moment the Hank Procedure.

“It’s urgent. I told him you had a prior engagement you were attending to but he insisted that this was very--” Sara notices Amaya in the room and the half-a-second of vulnerability displayed on Ava’s face and stops herself. At Sara’s choice of words, Ava gets an idea and mouths for Sara to get into the room.

“Mr. Heywood. I am so sorry for not bringing this up sooner. I think I have found the solution to our problems,” she takes a step closer to Sara and Sara eyes her nervously. “ _Sara_ and I are getting married.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Comments etc are greatly appreciated! Let me know what you guys think! I've had this in the works for a while and I'm pretty excited by it


	2. Chapter 2

Sara did well concealing her shock at her boss’s announcement. She shoots Ava a worried and questioning look but Ava’s short glare tells her just to go with it.

“You and Sara?” Hank asks, not believing this for a second.

“Yep,” Sara lets out, sounding only a little choked.

“Yes,” Ava repeats. “Sara and I, you know, fell in love… we knew we shouldn’t have but…”

“Here we are,” Sara finishes, glancing over at Ava. She has absolutely no idea what is going on but knows, for the good of her job, she has to play along. “Ava and I just couldn’t help ourselves. A lot of late nights together and weekends working hours on end on the same things. Something… something just… happened.” Ava looks at her confused for a fraction of a second. She hadn’t expected her to go along with it so quickly and willingly.

“Aren’t you her secretary?” Amaya asks Sara.

“Assistant,” Sara corrects.

“And who hasn’t fallen for their secretary, amiright, Hank?” Ava asks and immediately regrets when Hank’s half-amused face turns fully unamused. Sara lets out a quick laugh and Ava clears her throat just hoping to get past the awkwardness of that comment. “But I think that means we’re all good here, though, right? Sara and I have been engaged for what,” she looks at Sara, who is just staring blankly at her, for a brief moment, “two months now? We were going to come forward with it as soon as we worked the details out.”

“Well, congratulations, you two,” Amaya says with an easy smile. “We would be all set here as long as you two make it official.”

“Make… make it official,” Sara stutters out. “Right, like legally... married.”

“That’s normally how marriage works, my love,” Ava says with the world’s fakest smile and a hand on Sara’s back. Sara has to stop herself from jumping at the contact and the pet name. Hank eyes the two of them with doubt but curiosity.

“Right, of course,” Sara smiles at Ava, “I just wasn’t expecting it so soon.”

“Well, we better make our way to the _immigration_ office, then,” Ava says, still holding that fake smile she’s had for the past few minutes. She leads Sara out of the room with her hand on her back and a quick wave to Hank and Amaya.

As soon as they’re outside with the door closed, Ava retracts her hand and moves a respectable distance away from her. Sara grabs Ava’s hand, however, and pulls her down the few flights of stairs, down the hallway, and straight into her office. Once the door is shut, she moves as far away from Ava as possible.

“What the _fuck_ was that?” Sara harshly whispers.

“Why are you whispering?” Ava replies, eyebrows furrowed.

“It seems like a whispering moment!” Sara says at a normal level. “What the _fuck_ was that!”

“They’re deporting me,” Ava says flatly.

“Deporting you? Back to where? And what do I have to do with _any_ of this? Deportation means absolutely nothing for me and yet we’re still engaged for whatever reason!”

“Back to Canada. I’m from Vancouver. My… my visa was denied for a reason I do not agree with whatsoever. I need to stay in the country or they’ll give my job to Gary. Gary! The man can barely tie his shoelaces let alone run a world-wide magazine. I panicked and I really am sorry. I should have consulted you before I said that we were ‘engaged’ but it was a last ditch effort. Will you please do this for me? I will make it up to you somehow if you’ll marry me for this green card.”

“You’re Canadian?”

“That’s what you got from that?”

“Oh, no, I caught everything else but I know a lot about you and I never knew you were Canadian.”

“Yes, I’m Canadian. I’m from Vancouver like I said before,” Ava says, obviously exasperated by Sara’s seeming lack of concern that she just asked her to marry her -- even if it was a sham.

“Tell me this, Ava Sharpe: What’s in it for me?” Sara asks as she hops up to sit on Ava’s desk.

“What do you mean?”

“I mean why should I marry you to help you get a green card? Why should I commit a federal crime and get nothing out of it? What’s in it for me?”

“Seriously, Lance?” Ava flops into one of the chairs.

“Seriously, Sharpe,” Sara replies, crossing her arms. Ava sighs.

“What about the knowledge that you’re helping your boss in her time of need?” Sara shakes her head. “I honestly don’t know what I can give you that could repay this, Lance. What about a pay raise? I could make that happen.”

“I have been looking for a raise. I’ve also have had my eyes on a particular job opening that was just freed up recently.”

“Wha-” Ava starts but it dawns on her mid-word. “You want Gary’s job, don’t you?”

“Ding ding ding! We have a winner!” Sara says, hopping down off the desk as Ava rolls her eyes. “I would be more than happy to help out with your little… problem… if you can secure me a spot with that nice little editor title.”

“Ms. Lance,” Ava says, really thinking over the whole thing for the first time. “I don’t think I can get you Gary’s position. You’re not qualified for it yet.”

“Then I guess you better start brushing up on your hockey skills and grabbing that maple syrup because you’re headed back to Canada,” Sara says as she throws up her hands and walks towards the door.

“Wait!” Ava calls after her. Sara stops dead in her tracks and turns back around to face Ava with the most shit-eating grin Ava has ever seen. She sighs and stands up from the chair. “I can’t get you Gary’s position most likely. I can still get you a promotion, though. I can turn in a few favors and get you into a copy editor position if I try hard enough. The only way I can do that, though, is if I can stay in the country long enough for it to happen. If you and I get this green card marriage, it’s a done deal.”

Sara walks back over to the desk calmly and leans up against it in a very similar manner as Hank Heywood. She looks at Ava for a moment and then looks around the office, clearly contemplating all of her choices. “You’ve got yourself a deal,” she finally says after an all-too-long silence. Ava lets out a breath she didn’t know she was holding in.

“Thank you so so much, Ms. Lance. I’ll make sure to work on that promotion ASAP,” Ava says, finally rising from the chair.

“Well, Ava, as your future wife, I _think_ we’re on a first name basis now.”

“You’re not going to be my _wife_.”

“I mean, I think the marriage certificate will tell a different story.”

“We’re going to be married. Not wives. Saying you’re my wife holds way too many connotations that this marriage will not fulfill,” Ava says, circling around Sara and the desk to sit in her chair in front of the computer.

“Okay, but, now hear me out, if we don’t call each other our wife or fiancée,” Sara pushes herself off the desk to turn around and look at Ava, “They’re going to know it’s a sham and you’re going to get deported and I could be arrested and that’s a best case scenario. So, as your future _wife_ and current _fiancée_ , I say we should be on a first name basis.” Ava sighs, defeated.

“I’m really starting to rethink having you help me out here, _Sara_ ,” Ava rolls her eyes at Sara’s smile. “But you’re right. We’ll really need to sell it. They’ll need to believe we’re actually married, or at the very least intend to be married, for my visa to go through.”

“Then we better sell this,” Sara says, her smile slowly fading. “We should probably come up with a backstory.”

“Okay. Well I told Amaya and Mr. Heywood that we got engaged two months ago so that has to stay the same. When would we have gotten together?”

“Well probably a little longer back than two months ago…” Sara says, smirking at Ava. Ava lets out a breath and closes her eyes.

“Thanks for the input, Sara. Okay, how about a little over a year ago?”

“Wow, moving a little fast, aren’t we, Sharpe?”

“How is a year fast, Lance? Many people get engaged a lot sooner than that.”

“Okay, yeah they do, but not me. What about two and a half years? I’ve been working for you for five so we definitely took our time but we still got to know each other in a relationship setting,” Sara suggests, leaning against the arm of a chair in front of Ava’s desk. Ava takes a second to think about it.

“Okay,” she finally says.

“Okay?”

“Yup. I think that’s good,” Ava says while making eye contact with Sara for longer than they ever had before.

“Alrighty!” Sara says, looking away from Ava and towards the door. “Let’s get to that department then. Don’t want to go back to the Great White North now, do ya, Sharpe?”

Ava just nods at Sara, puts her email to Out Of Office, and gets up to walk out the door. Sara quickly follows after her but Ava continues walking without slowing or turning around to make sure Sara was coming so she picks up the pace to catch up with the taller woman’s long legs.

“Hey, wait up,” Sara finally resorts to calling out when Ava reaches the elevator.

“Sorry,” Ava says flatly. “I had figured you were right behind me.”

“I _was_ right behind you but we should walk together. We’re going to this place to prove to them we’re getting married and that we’re a couple. If I follow you around like your assistant all day, literally nobody will be fooled.”

“You’re right,” Ava agrees. This is the most Ava has ever agreed with her and Sara is both happy by it but annoyed by the circumstances.

“Of course I am,” Sara mutters as the elevator opens. Ava doesn’t even try to hide her eye roll.

Sara manages to walk beside Ava all the way to the subway platform and they wait in a not-quite-amicable but not-quite-awkward silence. Checking her watch, Sara remembers that she was going to text that barista later in the day. She didn’t even have the number anymore because it was on Ava’s cup which was now in the trash. This day just kept going the exact opposite of how she wanted.

The subway car to go down Midtown to the Department of Immigration’s office was overly packed. Sara pushes her way in between other commuters to stand against the opposite doors. She looks around to find Ava and she spots her looking very awkward, squished into the middle of the car, arms behind her back, fighting to stay upright against the motion of the train. Sara sighs, pushes herself off of the doors, and maneuvers her way through the people to get to Ava. She grabs her arm and pulls her towards where she was standing before.

“Hey,” Ava yelps when she trips over her own feet, “What are you doing?”

“I’m helping you not fall. Lean against the door,” Sara says, backing Ava into the doors. She takes a step back and reaches across to the railing next to Ava to keep herself grounded. Ava looks at her with a mixture of annoyance and boredom which frustrates Sara beyond belief. “You could act grateful. I really don’t have to be doing any of this for you, y’know.”

“I’m not a child. I didn’t need you to help me there,” Ava says, looking over Sara’s shoulder at the subway map.

“You sure as hell are acting like a child,” Sara mutters just quiet enough where Ava couldn’t hear her. Ava stares very intently at the map and taps her foot to the beat of the conversations swirling around her. Sara can tell she’s nervous but has no way (or real desire) to calm her down so, instead, she looks around the car and inspects the other commuters. There’s an older man standing against the opposite doors absentmindedly staring her down so she scowls at him and he quickly looks away. Sara smiles to herself and the train lurches to a stop.

“Ready?” Ava says looking not at all ready herself.

“Let’s do this,” Sara says with such bravado she almost convinces herself she’s prepared.

They walk out into the immigration office with confidence that could fool anyone they came across. After they explain why they’re there and what they’re looking to get done, they’re told they have to wait in the lobby for the next available agent to help out. Ava and Sara take the only two available seats next to each other and pull out their phones to pass the time.

“Ms. Sharpe?” A curt, British voice calls out through the room. Ava immediately hops to her feet and Sara rises to follow. They follow the man into a back room that appears to be his office. The desk has a name plate which reads ‘Rip Hunter.’ Sara thinks that sounds like a fake name but decides it’s probably not in her best interest to mention that. The two women sit down in the chairs across from his desk as he stands by the door. “Ladies, I do apologize but it appears I have left your file in the other room. If you would give me one moment, please, I will be right back to discuss everything.”

“Of course,” Ava replies, looking at him then at Sara. Rip leaves the room and Sara watches until the door is completely shut before speaking.

“That’s a fake name,” Sara says matter-of-factly. Ava scrunches her face up in obvious confusion.

“What? Rip Hunter?” Ava scoffs.

“Yes Rip Hunter,” Sara says rolling her eyes. “There is no way a parent looked at a child and said ‘hm let me call him Rip.’”

“Sara, please don’t. Don’t ask him if that’s his real name. Don’t mention that. He’s in charge of my citizenship here.”

“Okay,” Sara says, now looking around the office, “But I don’t trust anyone with a government job and a fake name.”

“It’s probably not a fake na--” Before Ava could finish her sentence, the door swings open and in walks the man himself.

“Sorry ‘bout that, ladies,” Rip says, taking his seat behind his desk.

“No worries, _Mr. Hunter_ ,” Sara says with a knowing smile. Rip looks confused for a second but brushes it off and opens the file. If it were possible for a look to wound someone, Ava could’ve killed her.

“I do have a question for both of you,” Rip begins, looking down at the file then back up at the women. “Are you two committing fraud so Ms. Sharpe can stay in the country and continue as Editor-in-Chief at Waverider Magazine?”

“What?” Both women ask simultaneously. Ava feels like she could pass out at that very moment but Sara just feels annoyed that this fake-named Brit would question her in that way (even if he was right).

“I think you heard me,” Rip says and takes another look down at the file. “I ask because Ms. Sharpe here just had her visa renewal denied this morning. You can see why it would ring some sort of alarm that you two are now looking to get married and obtain a green card.”

“That’s ridiculous,” Sara starts but Rip looks opens his mouth to continue speaking.

“I do want you two to know the consequences of a fraudulent marriage for this purpose,” he says while looking straight at Ava who is sitting up straighter than what should be humanly possible. “If it is found out that you two are lying, you, Ms. Sharpe, will be deported indefinitely and you, Ms. Lance, will be fined $250,000 and spend up to five years in a federal prison. Is that understood?”

“Yes, sir,” Ava says. She sneaks a glance at Sara who is currently glaring Rip down with such force anyone would think she was wrongfully accused of this crime. Ava feels a little less stressed at the sight.

“Good,” Rip says. He folds his hands on the desk and turns his attention to Sara. “We will first need to conduct a few interviews to make sure this is a legitimate marriage. We are going to interview you two separately and then compare your answers. These will be questions that any real couple should know about each other, so it should be no issue. Right, Sara?”

“You’ve got it, _Rip_ ,” Sara replies. The stress returns to Ava in that moment.

“Good,” he says again, “Then, we are going to dive into all the details of your lives. We’re going to ask coworkers, family, friends, neighbors, and the likes about your relationship. Again, if there is any discrepancies here, there will be an issue.” Ava looks at Sara who looks back at her and nods very slightly.

“That might be an issue,” Ava says. “It has nothing to do with the relationship's legitimacy but with the fact that we have not really told many people…”

“Anyone,” Sara cuts in, “We haven’t told anyone. Well anyone but the head honchos at Waverider for HR reasons.” Rip cocks his head to the side.

“And why is that?” Rip asks, leaning back in his chair.

“Well,” Sara starts.

“There are a few different reasons we didn’t talk to anyone about this relationship,” Ava picks up. “First, we wanted to be sure about it before talking to coworkers.”

“You know how coworkers can be,” Sara says with a smile. “I was her assistant. We wouldn’t want them to think I was getting preferential treatment with my new promotion and all because I’m sleeping with the boss, would we?”

“Your promotion?” Rip asks. He now seems amused and it makes Sara even more frustrated.

“Her promotion, yes,” Ava says, shooting a glare over to Sara. “Sara is being promoted from my assistant to Copy Editor. It’s all based off of her hard work, though, and has nothing to do with this relationship.”

“Okay, and what about your families? Have you told them?” Rip asks, sitting back up to grab the file from his desk.

“That’d be impossible for me,” Ava replies, now also staring Rip down. “Both my parents and my sister are dead. That should be in my file.” That was one fact about Ava Sara hadn’t learned yet. It catches her off guard for a moment and she looks away from Rip and over to Ava. Ava looks tense and all Sara can think to do is reach out and grab her hand. At the contact, Ava jumps very slightly. She looks over at Sara who then interlocks their fingers.

“I apologize about that, Ms. Sharpe. I must have missed that,” Rip says as he takes a look back down at the file for the umpteenth time. “But what about you Ms. Lance? Have you told your family?”

“Uh, no. Not yet,” Sara says. She takes back her hand and looks back to Rip. “You see, I’ve had a string of very bad relationships in the past. I don’t see my family very often in person and I know they would just worry if I told them about a new one every time it happened. I know Ava and I have been together for a while now but I didn’t want to tell them until I was sure.”

“You’re engaged. Aren’t you sure now?” Rip asks. Sara forces a smile and tilts her head slightly.

“Yes. I’m sure now. I just haven’t been able to see them in person to tell them the good news. I wouldn’t want to tell them over the phone,” Sara says, looking at Ava. That’s when it’s Sara’s turn to get an idea she will force upon Ava. “That’s why we were planning on telling them this coming week-slash-weekend. Right, babe?” Ava flounders for a second, having no idea what she’s talking about. Sara plasters that good ol’ fake smile that’s been coming in handy a lot that day back on her face. “Christmas is Monday, ya goof. Did you forget we were going to my parents house for a little winter holiday?”

“Right!” Ava says, turning her attention back onto Rip. “I apologize about that! I’ve just been so caught up in work and this marriage thing that it had totally slipped my mind.”

“Alright,” Rip says, standing up from his chair. The two women mimic his motion. “Then we will have to get all of this done early January then, won’t we?”

“Guess we will,” Sara says, relaxing her face into a more genuine smile.

“Where is it you’ll be going, Ms. Sharpe?” Rip asks, reaching out to shake her hand.

“Sara’s parents house in… uh…”

“Starling City,” Sara fills in with a short laugh. “This one and her forgetfulness.”

“You know me,” Ava says taking her hand back from Rip and putting it on the small of Sara’s back. “Are we all set here then, Mr. Hunter?”

“We’ll be in touch,” Rip says while opening the door for the two women.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wow two chapters in 24 hours? I'm on a roll today lol. It probably won't all be this fast but I've got a lot of the story mostly written already so they hopefully won't have too large of gaps in between the updates. Comments, questions, and corrections are always welcome!


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So this chapter kinda strays away from the plot of the Proposal but I gotta keep you guys on your toes ;) (and I had to have at least one chapter featuring the Waverider crew)

When she gets home that day, Sara collapses onto her bed, taking in the events of the day. She’s a felon. Well, she would be if they get caught. It’s not like Sara hasn’t done anything illegal before but it’s never something that could result in such a big consequence. Underage drinking and smoking weed in college really weren’t things she worried about. This was so much bigger.

She calms her breathing and decides in that moment that she needs some extra sleep that night. What’s Ava going to do if she comes in later than normal? Fire her? She seriously considers it for longer than she thinks she should have and still sets her usual 5am alarm. She really needs that promotion.

The next morning, it seems like it wouldn’t have mattered if Sara slept in or not. When she got to the office at her usual time, Ava was already sitting at her desk buried in work. Sara stops dead in her tracks at the sight and checks her watch. 8:20am like it should be. Taking a deep breath, she hesitantly knocks on the door once and enters.

“Ava, why are you already here?” Ava looks up at the sound of Sara’s voice, obviously not having heard the knock.

“Oh, Sara,” she says then looks back down at her work, “Since you decided we were taking a week long trip, I came in an hour early to get ahead of any work I’m bound to miss.” Sara just stares at her a moment.

“Ava, were you not planning on taking any time off for Christmas or New Years?” She finally asks after a beat. Ava looks up from her work.

“No. I don’t normally,” she says back. Sara walks over to her desk and places the coffee and bagel down. She was glad that Kendra hadn’t been working that morning because there’s no good way to say ‘sorry I didn’t call you. My boss and I got fake engaged to be real married.’

“How come?” Sara asks. Ava just picks up the coffee and continues writing on whatever it is she’s working on. “Ava. We need to know these things about each other. Do you not celebrate holidays or something?”

“I used to,” she says, finally looking directly at Sara. “It’s a long story. I really don’t want to get into it right now.”

“Okay,” Sara says, turning around to walk to the door, “But I will have to unlock that backstory before Rip Hunter interrogates us.”

Sara logs onto her computer when she gets to her desk and sends out a mass message to everyone in the room.

 **Sara** (08:22)

_Director is in her office_

**Zari** (08:30)

_Already?_

**Sara** (08:30)

_Yeah. She said something about needing to leave for the holidays and needs to get shit done_

**Raymond** (08:31)

_Huh. The director doesn’t normally take vacation time_

**Sara** (08:31)

_There’s a first for everything Ray_

**Zari** (08:35)

_btw where did you two go yesterday?_

**Sara** (08:40)

_We just had to run into the city for something. Don’t worry about it_

**Mick** (08:41)

_Seems fishy_

**Sara** (08:41)

_Shut up mick_

Sara considers her coworkers at the Waverider to be some of her closest friends but this is all too weird for her to explain to them. She’s hoping Ava and her could quietly go away for the holidays, secretly get married, and move on with their lives. Rip had previously mentioned that he would want to speak with their coworkers and friends, though. Whether she explains the whole thing or lies like she will with her family, they will have to be in the know somehow.

While Sara is contemplating her options and dreading every one, a new message box pops up on her screen.

 **Ava** (09:00)

_You’re going to have to buy me a ticket for the flight to Starling City this weekend._

**Sara** (09:10)

_Are you not capable of buying a plane ticket?_

**Ava** (09:10)

_Sara, please buy me a ticket for the flight to Starling City so we can fly in together. I’ll reimburse you. Plus, you’re still my assistant for the time being._

**Sara** (09:15)

_fine but my flight is early in the morning saturday_

_Oh btw my mom is now officially expecting you for the holidays. called her this morning_

**Ava** (09:16)

_Okay. How early?_

**Sara** (09:16)

_6_

Sara sees Zari approaching her desk and quickly closes out of the chat. She loves her friend but she knows it will bring up a lot of questions she doesn’t want to discuss quite yet. To make it seem like she was doing something other than staring at her screensaver, Sara pulls up a document on her computer.

“Hey,” Zari says when she reaches Sara’s desk.

“What can I do for you, Z?” Sara asks, standing up.

“Well, me and the guys were planning on going out for lunch today around 12:30. We wanted to see if you wanted to join us,” Zari says, circling Sara’s desk to look at her computer screen. She’s nosey and has never once tried to hide it. Sara gulps and hopes Ava doesn’t respond while Zari is standing there.

“I’d love to. I’ll have to check with Director Sharpe to see if she needs me around then but I would definitely love to get away with you and the gang.”

“You do know it’s mandatory by law to give lunch breaks, right? The Director can spare you for an hour or so while you’re downtown. Also, why are you looking at our handbook?” Sara checks the screen and, sure enough, the random document she pulled up was the employee handbook.

“Oh. I was, uh, checking to see if this new shirt I bought was in dress code,” Sara says, mentally smacking herself for such a bad excuse. “And I know I have to take a lunch eventually but sometimes she needs me at certain points in the day, Z. That’s what being an assistant entails. I’ll go ask her in a minute and get back to you?” Zari circles back around the desk to the other side and Sara sits back down.

“Fine but please try. We haven’t been out for lunch as a group for a while and it’ll hardly be the same without our captain,” Zari says. Sara has always thought it was funny that her friends call her their ‘captain.’ She does deserve the title, though. Without her, her friends never would have interacted with each other outside of work. As Zari turns to walk away, she calls over her shoulder, “Oh and you better wear that new shirt tomorrow, Lance.”

 **Ava** (09:26)

_Oh. 6 o’clock isn’t too bad. Let me know when things are squared away._

Instead of replying to the message, Sara once again exits out of the messenger and walks over to Ava’s office door. With two quick knocks, Sara lets herself in. Ava is sitting at her desk with a pile of papers at least a foot tall on either side of her. She’s closely reading the packet she has in her hands when she notices the intrusion.

“Can I help you, Ms. Lance?” She asks, looking up from the papers. Sara suppresses an eye roll at the formality of her question.

“Yeah, actually. I was wondering if I would be able to take an hour off at 12:30 today for lunch,” Sara says, closing the door behind her as she walked further into the office. Ava checks her watch, then her calendar, and looks back at Sara.

“I don’t see why that would be a problem. Just make sure you’re back by two at the latest. We have to talk with Amaya about a few things,” Ava says, looking back down at her work.

“Okay,” she starts, “Is it, like, HR things in general or is it specific to our situation?”

“Do you mean is it specific to getting married to a coworker? I would assume so. I didn’t ask.” Ava doesn’t look up from her work and, for whatever reason, that annoys the hell out of Sara.

“Okay…” Sara says, crossing the room to sit in one of the chairs in front of the desk, “So she just said she needed to speak with us?” Ava looks up at that point and searches Sara’s face for something.

“Yeah. Are you okay?”

“Why wouldn’t I be?”

“Well, a lot happened yesterday. It’d be okay if you weren’t okay, Sara,” Ava says, finally fully putting down the packet. “You can talk to me.”

“Thanks. I’m fine, though,” Sara says. She picks the packet Ava was looking at up off the desk and looks it over so she doesn’t have to make eye contact.

“Okay,” Ava says, eyeing her. She can tell Sara really isn’t fine but doesn’t feel like pushing her to tell her why. “Can I have that back if that’s all?”

“Yeah,” Sara says, clearing her throat and standing up. She places the packet back on her desk and walks back to her own desk. “I’ll see you around two then.”

“ _At_ two, Sara,” Ava calls after her. “Please do not be late.”

“Yeah, yeah,” she replies, closing Ava’s door behind her. She knows her nonchalance about timing will piss her off and that alone makes her feel better for a second.

Sara doesn’t want to talk about it with Ava but she is actually extremely nervous to bring her home. She hasn’t brought anyone home in quite some time. She really does not want to bring Ava home and announce this engagement. Her parents will probably be sad they were supposedly kept out of the loop of this big relationship for so long. She’ll have to come up with a very good excuse for why she bad mouthed Ava so much over the years and why she kept their ‘relationship’ under-wraps for as long as she would have if any of this was real. And Laurel. Sara had almost forgotten about her sister for a second. She’ll have to come up with even better excuses for Laurel. She can’t pull the “I didn’t want to worry you” as easily with her. Ever since they had the whole thing with Oliver and him cheating with Sara, the two of them promised to be as open as possible with each other. She’ll be crushed if she thinks that Sara has been keeping something so big from her again.

When noon rolls around, Sara grows even more anxious for her lunch with her friends. She can lie to them, no problem. That’s not too hard. The problem is that at least one of them will know she’s lying. They can always tell. The worst it will be is awkward. They’re probably going to be shocked but it’s not like Sara hasn’t kept things from them before. She’ll have to put that one improv class she took in high school to good use if they ask any questions, though.

Zari saunters over to Sara’s desk at exactly 12:30 so they share a cab to wherever it is Ray and Nate want to eat. When Sara starts grabbing her coat, Ava opens her door.

“Oh, Sara,” Ava says, pulling on her own coat and checking her watch. “I thought you would have already left.” Zari gives Sara a look at the familiarity of the comment.

“Just headed out now,” Sara says while purposefully avoiding all the eye contact Zari tries to make. “Did you need something?”

“No, no. I was just heading out to get another coffee,” Ava pauses, “Did you want anything when I’m out?” Sara face betrays her in that moment and she can’t stop the corners of her lips from twitching upwards.

“I’m going out so I think I’ll be okay.”

“Right.”

“Thanks though,” Sara says. Zari clears her throat.

“We should get going, Cap’. The guys are waiting downstairs,” she says, interrupting this weird moment.

“Right,” Sara says, finally looking back over at her friend. “Let’s go, then. Don’t want them to get too hungry.” Once safely in the elevator, Zari turns on Sara with a huge smile but questioning eyes.

“ _What_ was _that_?” She asks. Sara looks up at the numbers counting down the floors instead of answering. “Sara. Oh my god, it’s true.”

“What’s true,” Sara says this more as a demand than a question.

“You and Ava,” Zari says now stepping right in front of her friend and making direct eye contact. Sara thinks this is the longest elevator ride she’s ever had.

“Zari… what about me and Ava?” Sara says. Maybe this will be easier than she thought. How did she know though?

“You two are together. Like seriously together,” she says. Her statement is confident but her face is all disbelief. Sara’s eyes dart away for a second before returning to her friend.

“Wha-ho-who told you?” Sara asks, genuinely dumbfounded. How did word travel so fast? The elevator signals that they have reached the lobby and the doors slowly open but Zari doesn’t turn around to walk out.

“Amaya,” she shrugs. Sara looks over her shoulder and tries to go around her but Zari side steps back in front of her. “You need to tell me _everything_. I mean it, Sara. None of this ‘a good girl doesn’t kiss and tell’ shit.” The doors to the elevator begin to shut but Sara reaches her arm out just in time to stop them.

“First of all, that’s gotta be a huge violation of some HR codes or whatever. Like I don’t know their rules but I bet that broke more than one of them,” Sara starts. She should have known that that would have happened, truthfully. Zari and Amaya have been hanging out on and off for a while now and it’s not surprising she got this out of her. “Secondly, I’ll tell you everything as soon as we get into the cab. The guys seem to have already left without us.” Zari turns around to look at the empty lobby and grabs Sara’s hand to pull her to the street.

“Okay, fine. You’re not getting out of telling me though, Lance,” Zari says, waving a cab down. “And don’t be too mad at Amaya. It’s hardly her fault. We were extremely drunk and I doubt she remembers telling me.”

“Why the hell were you two so drunk on a Thursday night?” Sara asks, climbing into the cab behind her friend. Zari gives the cab driver the name of the pub Nate had texted her and turns back to Sara.

“I honestly do not know. It just happened.”  
“Would you take that as my answer to all of your questions about Ava?” Sara asks with a smirk.

“Oh god,” Zari says, wrinkling her nose up, “It’s so weird to hear you call her ‘Ava’.”

“That’s her name, Zari.”

“Yeah but I don’t think any of us have called her anything other than ‘The Director’ or ‘Director Sharpe’ in years.” Sara laughs at that because it is fully true. Even when talking to her parents about Ava, she would call her ‘Director Sharpe’. God, she has a lot of explaining to make up.

“Yeah, that’s fair,” Sara replies, still laughing to herself a little.

“So, first off, when did this start?” Zari turns her whole body in her seat to face Sara. Sara immediately feels cornered.

“Uh, we started this whole thing two and a half years ago?” Sara says.

“Are you asking me?”

“No, it’s just… been a while.” Sara feels like she can’t breathe. It’s not normally this hard to lie to her friends but this time feels different.

“Hell yeah, it’s been a long time!” Zari says. “Why have you led us to believe you hate her all this time?”

“I mean she is a terribly strict boss,” Sara smiles.

“Oh god,” Zari groans, “You like that, don’t you?” Sara laughs at the unexpected question. “God, you do. That’s so gross.”

“Hey, don’t judge me,” Sara decides to go with it. She definitely deserves to have a little fun with all of this. “It’s hot.”

“Ugh, Sara,” Zari complains. Sara just laughs again.

“Hey, I wasn’t the one who mentioned it.”

“Fine. But why did you keep this from us? Also, I know for a fact you said that you hooked up with a guy from the bar last week. Does the Director know about that?”

“Oh. I... uh,” Sara had forgotten about that guy from the week before, “I lied about that.”  
“You lied about hooking up with someone? Why?”  
“Because I know you would never let me live if you didn’t think I was getting laid,” Sara doesn’t even have to lie for that one.

“Okay, fair. But why did you keep this from us all?”

“Can we talk about this later?” Sara asks. “I really don’t want to have to explain this to you and then have to re-explain to the gang.”

Zari fights her a little on it but ultimately drops it when they pull up to the pub. It’s both a relief and more stressful when they get climb out onto the curb. Sara knows Zari will immediately fill everyone in on all the details she knows but that’s where Sara’s (not-so) amazing acting skills must come into play. The men are all already sitting around a high-top table when they walk in. Nate and Ray are animatedly talking about whatever it is they’re excited about this week and Mick is sipping his beer looking like he’d rather be anywhere else. Ray perks up even more when he sees Zari and Sara approach the table.

“Hey, Z! Sara!” He waves over to them as if they hadn’t noticed the table yet. Sara smiles and gives him a small wave back.

“Hey, Ray. How’s it going?” She says once she gets to the table. Ray gives her a small side-hug from his chair right before Zari and Sara sit down at the table.

“You know, just going through life. It’s been treating me well. No real complaints,” Ray smiles.

“Dude, you were just talking about the rejection you received last night with that girl,” Nate says.

“Oh, right. Well, yeah. That sucked... but with every closed door, a new one opens!” Ray smiles over at his best friend.

“You know who didn’t get a rejection recently?” Zari starts.

“You?” Nate asks rolling his eyes. “Zari you really don’t have to rub it in my face every single time you and --”

“No, I wasn’t talking about me,” Zari cuts him off. Sara knows exactly where this is going and calls over to the bartender for a round of beer. “ _Sara_.”

“Nice,” Nate says, reaching over to high five Sara. Sara half-heartedly returns the gesture. “Who’s the lucky person?”

“You’re never going to believe it,” Zari states. Sara thinks she’s way too excited about this and almost feels bad that it’s all fake.

“The Director,” Mick states, putting down his beer bottle. Sara looks over at him, confused.

“Nah, seriously, Z, who?” Nate says. Sara still doesn’t look away from Mick who is now just reading the label of the bottle.

“How did you know?” Sara asks him. Mick just shrugs and sips his beer again.

“Woah woah woah. You and Director Sharpe?” Nate asks as he turns his body in his chair to fully face Sara. “No way.”  
“Way,” Zari says, obviously getting a kick out of the whole thing. “Honestly. And she and the Director have been dating for over two years.”

“Woah, wait a second,” Ray cuts in. “You and Ava have been going out for more than two years and you never told us about it?”

“Sorry, Ray,” Sara says. She can see the hurt in his eyes and that’s what kills her the most. “It’s complicated.”

“The relationship? Or telling us?” Nate asks.

“Both,” Sara winces. That’s never a good way to introduce a relationship (even if this is a fake one).

“Okay, well we know now. Tell us everything,” Ray says, the smile returning to his face. “When and how did this start? Is it serious? Why couldn’t you tell us other than it being ‘complicated’?”

Sara delves into the predetermined details Ava and her had gone over the day before in her office and adds flourishes here and there that she’ll have to remember to fill her boss in on later. Ray, Zari, and Nate interrupt every now and then to ask a question or two but Mick seems utterly uninterested and watches the football game over Ray’s shoulder on the bar TV. The only time Mick looks back at Sara is when she mentions their engagement. That, of course, gets her bombarded with more questions from everyone and she somehow successfully dodges having to give any answers.

After they eat and talk some more, Sara checks her watch and notices it’s 1:45. “Oh shit. I gotta get going back,” she says, throwing her coat on. “I’ll see you guys at the office but I have a meeting in, like, fifteen minutes.”

“Wait,” Zaris says as she’s throwing down some money to pay her way, “Can’t you stay a little longer? We all have so many more questions.”

“I really wish I could Z but I promised Dir-- Ava I’d be back for two. She’d kill me if I was late,” Sara says as she backs away from the table.

“Fine. Go be with your _fiancée_ ,” Zari says, rolling her eyes at the last word. “That’ll never be not weird.”

“I know,” Sara calls over her shoulder, “But you gotta get used to it!” She flashes one more smile over her shoulder to her friends and races out the door.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Reach out in the comments or on twitter @skylawrites! Thank you guys so much for the love I've received already. I really appreciate it all and I can't wait to continue with this story


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay so Quentin and Dinah are still together because the Lance family deserves a goddamn break

Ava and Sara’s meeting with Amaya is uneventful to say the least. They go over work policy on office relationships (which makes Ava _super_ uncomfortable because this is the last thing she ever expected to have a meeting on) and general details of their relationship. Sara added in the flourishes she had just told her friends at the pub and Ava just nodded along while taking mental notes of their new details. The rest of the day ends up being very mundane for them. When the end of Sara’s shift rolls around, she pokes her head into Ava’s office to let her know she’s leaving. As she expected, Ava is still up to her eyes in her work.

“Ava, it’s six. I’m gonna be headed out,” Sara says, startling Ava more than she initially intended to.

“Oh, alright,” the other woman responds while checking the clock. “I’ll see you tomorrow morning.” Sara forces a tight-lipped smile.

“Bright and early. Plane boards at 5:30 and we have to go through security.”

“Ms. Lance, I assure you I have definitely flown before,” Ava says returning to her work. Sara sighs and walks over to her desk, putting a small piece of paper down in front of Ava. “What’s this?”

“You should probably have my phone number,” Sara smirks as Ava looks back up at her. “Please don’t put it in your phone as ‘Ms. Lance’ or something dumb like that. Just text me when you’re through security and we can meet at the gate.”

Sara is used to waking up early but four am is just not a time she thinks anyone should be out of bed for for any reason. Sara prides herself on her flying capabilities, though. It’s the one thing she’s never been late for and will never be late for. That’s why it surprises her when she receives a text while she’s still in line for security.

 **Unknown Number** (04:30)

_I’m over by the gate._

_It’s Ava by the way._

_Ava Sharpe._

**Sara Lance** (04:31)

_I got that it was u Ava thanks_

_ill be there soon_

**Ava** (04:33)

_Right._

And just like that, Sara is in a bad mood. The combo of little sleep, long security lines, and Ava getting there first was just the right cocktail to make her want to turn right back around and head back to bed. But she can’t do that. Her family is waiting for her in Starling City. She misses them more than anything. She just can’t wait to be able to actually talk to them in person. Technology is amazing and all but FaceTime can never hold a candle to being there in person.

After she finally gets through security, Sara sets off to find the gate. Instead of looking for the numbers, Sara thought it’d be fun to try to find the gate by finding the person who looks most like they have a stick up their ass. When she realizes she’s at the end of the terminal, Sara turns on her heel. Huh. She didn’t see the tight bun and suit she was looking for. Realizing even Ava has to probably use the bathroom sometimes, Sara goes back through the boring way and looks for her gate number.

When she finally finds it, she quickly scans the people waiting to see if she just missed Ava before. That’s when Sara feels her heart stop. Ava is sitting in one of the chairs by the window. She’s in jeans, a white t-shirt that she has tucked in, and a brown leather jacket. Her hair falls in gentle waves over her shoulders with the morning light hitting it, showing off all the golden streaks, and Sara hadn’t realized before that moment how long it actually is. It’s right then that Sara realizes it probably won’t be hard convincing her family that Ava was at the very least her type. She’s drop dead gorgeous. Right when Sara realizes she’s probably been staring much longer than necessary, Ava looks up from her phone and immediately sees her. Standing up, Ava makes her way over to the still dumbstruck woman.

“Here,” Ava says, holding out a cup of coffee. Sara just glances down at it for a second. “I just thought, since you bring me my coffee every morning, I should return the favor.”

“Thanks...” Sara says as she grabs the cup. She narrows her eyes at Ava and Ava immediately gets defensive.

“Jesus, Lance. It’s not poison. Black, two sugar,” Ava says. As Sara slowly takes a sip, Ava reaches up and puts the hair (which Sara still can’t get over) up in a looser version of her usual bun. “Are you okay?”

“Yeah, of course,” Sara clears her throat and sweeps her eyes around the gate again. “I’m just tired.”

“Yeah I get that,” Ava puts her hands in her back pockets and looks around as well. “It’s been a long morning.”

“How long have you been here?” Sara turns her attention back to the woman in front of her.

“I got here at four,” Ava says. She turns to return to her seat by the window, Sara following close behind. That answer somehow makes Sara even more frustrated. She was only ten minutes later than Ava.

The two women sit there mostly in silence for the next half an hour. They have small conversations here and there but they both seem pretty content to just sit there. Ava is reading a book on her phone and Sara peeks over her shoulder. Much to her delighted surprise, Ava was just reading a trashy beach read.

“Rebecca Silver, huh?” Sara smiles at her and Ava quickly locks her phone.

“Please never mention you saw that to anyone.”

“Which one were you reading? Uncaged Desire or Heatwaves: An Erotic Space Odyssey?” Sara’s smile only grows wider as Ava blushes hard and clears her throat.

“I...How did you...” Ava coughs a little, “Heatwaves. It’s surprisingly good.”

“You know I know the author, right?” Sara says nonchalantly.

“ _You_ know Rebecca Silver?” Ava says narrowing her eyes at her. She obviously does not believe her.

“I mean, kinda. Not by that name,” Sara stands up from her chair, picks up her suitcase, and starts to walk away. She likes to keep people on their toes with comments like this.

“Where are you going?”

“Boarding, Ava. It’s what you do when you’re flying somewhere and don’t want the plane to leave without you.” Without wasting any time, Ava stands up, grabs her suitcase, and quickly follows after her.

Once the two women are comfortably on the plane, Ava ends up checking her buckle numerous times. Sara watches slightly concerned.

“Ava Sharpe, are you afraid of flying?” She asks her, a gentle smile forming on her lips. Ava lets out a harsh laugh.

“No,” she replies firmly. “I just like to make sure I’m safe.”

“Ava,” Sara says, reaching out to still Ava’s hand, “I can assure you that you’re safe.” Her hand resting on Ava’s seem to have the exact opposite effect from what she wanted when she can feel the woman next to her completely tense up. “Aves, they wouldn’t let us go unless all of our seatbelts at least work. Can we just relax and enjoy the flight? We need to go over a few details before we get to Starling.”

“Right, yes. Sorry. What details did you want to go over?”

“Well,” Sara takes her hand back, “I mean, I don’t even know where you grew up. That one is a particularly important one.”

“Fresno,” Ava replies, messing with the air vent above her seat. Sara scrunches up her face in mock disgust.

“Wedding’s off,” she says as she pretends to grab her bag from under the seat in front of her.

“Sara,” Ava rolls her eyes, “Jesus. There wasn’t even a wedding to begin with.” Sara laughs and sits back in her chair.

“Okay but I will mock you whenever you bring up your hometown and you have to be prepared for that.”

“Fine,” Ava resigns. “Anything else you want to know?”

“Loads, Ava. You should probably ask me a few questions as well, y’know.”

“Okay… Why haven’t you brought anyone home in a while?”

“Jesus, Ava. I asked about your hometown and that’s where you go first?”

“I’m sorry, do you want me to do a different one or are we going to know the things we need to know to sell this?” Sara rolls her eyes at the harshness of Ava’s tone.

“Fine,” she says, taking a deep breath, “Okay. It’s kinda a long story. I’m not going to go into all of it because _no one_ is going to ask you about it if they know what’s good for them. I was in a long term relationship with someone I really loved. We were pretty good together. Things got serious... too serious for me, though. So... I bailed.”

“You bailed? What does that even mean?”

“It means I packed up all my bags, cut ties, and moved to New York to be an editor. Well, an assistant I guess,” Sara looks out the window as the plane starts taxiing down the runway.

“Wait so you just left? Did you even really talk to this person?” Ava asks and even she can tell that that was not the right thing to say in this moment.

“ _Of course_ I talked to her, Ava. I really tried to at least. She meant the world to me,” Sara is now glaring out the window and Ava really wishes she could go back and make this not the first question she asked.

“I’m sorry, Sara. I didn’t mean…” Ava doesn’t know how to finish that sentence. She did mean for her question to be heavier. She didn’t mean for Sara to be hurt though. Sara just sighs and looks back at Ava.

“It’s okay,” she says. “But now it’s my turn for a question. Why haven’t you dated anyone in the five years I’ve known you?”

“Wait, who says I haven’t?” Ava looks slightly offended at the question.

“Ava, I know better than anyone the hours you work. I also know that you have literally no personal photos anywhere in your office and your wallpaper on both your phone and your laptop are of a galaxy.”

“None of that means I don’t or didn’t have a girlfriend though,” Ava says scrunching her face up in frustration. Sara smiles when she specifies girlfriend, though. Even though she was fake engaged to be real married to Ava, it’s kind of nice to know she at the very least likes women.

“Well do you or did you?” Sara asks. Ava goes back to messing with the air vent above her head.

“No. You’re right,” Ava sighs. “I haven’t been in a relationship in a while. I’ve found it rather hard to juggle work and a commitment like that.”

“Well, that’s always something someone’s future wife likes to hear,” Sara says trying to lighten the mood. This whole question and answer thing turned quicker than she could’ve ever guessed. Ava lets out a quick laugh.

“Do you have a favorite food?” Ava asks. Sara smiles at the drastic change of pace she goes for there.

“I mean who doesn’t love pizza?” Sara says it more like a statement than a question though. “Your favorite is Indian, right? Chicken tikka masala?”

“How did you know that?”

“You have me order it for you if you’re staying late. Which is often, Ava.”

“Right,” Ava blushes and clears her throat again. “How much do you actually know about me?”

“I mean I didn’t know you grew up in _Fresno_ \--”

“Sara.”

“--but I did know your favorite food, your favorite color is blue, your favorite book I now know is Heatwaves--”

“That is far from true.”

“--and you were a huge fan of Orphan Black when it was still airing new episodes. I also know your coffee and breakfast order, obviously, and I know you hate Tuesdays instead of Mondays because you think a productive day of work at the beginning of the week is easier than the second day.”

“Why do you know all of that?” Ava asks rather bluntly.

Sara shrugs, “We’ve spent almost every day for the last five years together. It’s also part of my job to know a lot of that.”

“I guess that’s true,” Ava says. “I...I uh don’t know any of those things.”

“You never really ask me anything. Or listen when I offer any info about myself up,” Sara says turning to fully look at Ava, “Do you even know my parents names? What about my sister?”

“You never told me either of those things,” Ava challenges her. “Plus, I’m going to call your parents Mr. and Mrs. Lance until they tell me to call them their first names.”

“I definitely have said all three of their names to you within the past 48 hours. You really just don’t listen,” Sara says. “Plus, the whole ‘Mr. and Mrs. Lance’ does not get you off the hook for Laurel.”

“Your sister’s name is Laurel,” Ava smirks.

“Wow. Great memory you’ve got there, Ava,” Sara rolls her eyes. “You think you can retain the information any longer than the next few minutes?”

“God, Sara. I’m obviously not an idiot,” Ava frowns.

“I _never_ said ‘idiot’. Just self-absorbed.”

“I’m hardly self-absorbed. You know I have a lot on my plate and especially recently.”

“Ava, I’ve definitely mentioned my sister more than a few times in the past five years.”

“And I’ve definitely been pretty busy for the past five years,” Ava turns her head away from Sara at this point and Sara looks back out the window, not wanting to argue any longer. Sara sees the buildings of Starling City starting to appear through the fog. She takes a deep, steadying breath as the pilot comes over the intercom and announces their descent into the city. That’s when she feels Ava tense right back up again. Right. Flight anxiety.

“You ready?” Sara asks calmly. Whether she’s talking about meeting the family and lying or the landing that has to take place first doesn’t matter and Ava just nods in response.

After they land and exit the plane, they quickly find their luggage. Bag claim is definitely Sara’s least favorite part of the airport on a normal flight but currently she is dreading the emotional bag claim that is seeing her family. When they round the corner with their bags, Laurel and her parents are all standing and waiting by one of the potted plants in the lobby of the airport.

“Laurel!” Sara tries her best not to shout but it definitely comes out a lot louder than previously intended causing Ava to jump. Sara deserts her suitcase with Ava as she runs over to greet her older sister. Laurel pulls Sara into a crushing hug and then pulls her back and holds her by the shoulders to take a look at her.

“Sara,” she breathes out, “It is _so_ good to see you.”

“Ah, c’mere honey,” Quentin says after a few second of the sisters hugging again. “It’s been too long.”

“I know, daddy,” she replies, switching from hugging her sister to her father. She then grabs a hold of her mother and brings her into a hug just as tight. “I’m sorry about that.”

Ava awkwardly stands behind the family with the two suitcases and their carry-ons and watches their interaction. Laurel catches sight of her after Sara releases their mother and gives her a warm smile.

“You must be Ava,” she says as she walks over to her. “I’m Laurel. Sara has told us _so_ much about you.” Laurel gives Sara a sideways glance which causes the younger sister to laugh awkwardly and Ava extends her hand for Laurel to shake.

“All true, I hope,” Ava says as Laurel accepts the handshake. Laurel smiles at the word choice.

“Not ‘all good’?” Laurel asks and Ava laughs. Sara doesn’t think she can remember the last time Ava has genuinely laughed in front of her.

“Well, honestly, knowing how work is, I just hope she doesn’t make me seem worse than I really am,” Ava smiles. Sara’s stomach drops. She hadn’t ever realized that Ava knew she was a difficult boss.

“Well, it’s great to finally meet the woman behind all the stories,” Sara’s mom says walking over with Quentin to where the women were standing.

“It’s great to finally meet you as well, Mrs. Lance,” Ava says, putting her arms behind her back in her usual professional stance.

“Oh honey please call me Dinah,” she replies with a smile and leans over to Sara to (poorly) whisper in her ear, “She’s really not _nearly_ as horrid as you’ve said.”

“ _Mom_ ,” Sara harshly whispers back. Ava stands up a little straighter and Sara realizes she 100% heard what her mom just said to her.

“Alright,” Quentin interjects awkwardly, “Uh, we should probably be headed back now. You guys are probably tired from an early flight.” Never has Sara been more glad for her father being awkward around people she dates.

As they grab their bags and head towards the parking lot, Sara reaches over and takes Ava’s hand. Ava stares at their interlocked fingers for a moment before looking over at Sara’s face. Sara acts like nothing is out of the norm thankfully but Ava falters for half a second and almost trips over her own feet.

“Woah, you okay?” Sara asks, still not letting go of her hand.

“Yeah, sorry,” Ava mutters.

The five of them reach a police cruiser in the parking lot and Quentin smiles at Ava while Sara groans.

“What?” Her dad asks as he opens the trunk and goes to grab their bags from them.

“Seriously dad? Are you even supposed to drive this to pick up family from the airport?” Sara asks. She drops Ava’s hand as she picks up her own bag to put into the trunk.

“I don’t remember them tellin’ me not to,” he says. Laurel has a hard time controlling her smile.

“You’re _seriously_ going to throw us into the back of the cruiser?”

“I told you she wouldn’t be happy,” Dinah lightly slaps her husband’s arm.

“Hey, I’m just tryin’ to pick up my baby girl and bring her and her girlfriend home,” Quentin says.

“I knew you would have this response,” Laurel says to her sister and she throws a pair of keys at her. Sara smiles brightly at her.

“Oh. Do you have a car?” Ava asks her causing both sisters to smile widely at her.

“Sorta,” Sara replies. Ava hates the vagueness of that answer. “C’mon, I’ll show you.”

Sara grabs her hand and leads Ava through the parking lot until she finds exactly what she’s looking for.

“What, that?” Ava asks gesturing to the vehicle.

“Absolutely,” Sara smiles at her then at the black motorcycle sitting in the spot.

“Absolutely not,” Ava replies. Sara ignores her and saunters over to it. She picks up one of the helmets waiting for her and tosses it over to Ava. “Please don’t make me get on that.”

“What? Are you scared?”

“Of the motorcycle? No. Of you driving me on it? Very much so,” Ava says as Sara puts her own helmet on.

“Then you’ll just have to hold on tight.” Ava can’t see Sara’s face but, from the tone alone, she can see her winking.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Seriously cannot thank you enough for the comments and kudos! Didn't expect this to get the response it has been and it's been fantastic. As always, comments are more than welcome and you can talk to me on twitter @skylawrites


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Happy Valentine's Day my dudes. I'm single af so I spent my day finishing this and eating a pint of ice cream! Woooooooo

Ava clutches Sara’s waist tight as they speed through the downtown traffic of Starling City. Sara obviously knows what she’s doing on the motorcycle but that doesn’t ease Ava’s fears at all. At the first red light they hit, Ava leans back and loosens her grip on the other woman. If she’s not mistaken, she can almost hear Sara sigh at the loss of contact.

“You okay back there?” Sara says over her shoulder. Ava just makes a noise in response and Sara laughs. “You’re  _ fine _ , Ava. We’re almost to Laurel’s apartment.”

As soon as the light turns green, Sara takes off causing Ava to instinctively grab her tight again. Ava tries to relax into Sara but finds it very hard when they’re going what she can only assume is way too fast for the roads they’re on and the turns they’re taking. For a cop’s daughter, Sara seems to have a lot of disregard for road laws. Before Ava can voice her opinion on that, however, Sara takes a sharp left into a parking lot. After Sara finds a spot, Ava peels herself off of her and quickly stands up. 

“Told you you were fine, Ava,” Sara says as she stands up after her. Ava just takes off her helmet and tries her best to fix her hair before the rest of Sara’s family arrives. When she goes to put her helmet down on the back of the bike, she catches Sara taking off her own helmet out of the corner of her eye and freezes. Outside of movies and cheesy tv shows, nobody should look that good taking off a helmet and yet here Sara Lance stands. She takes the helmet off like it was rehearsed many times before and her hair falls into a hairstyle that can only be described as a perfect imperfection. She looks like a windswept model from a Hollister poster and Ava finds it completely unfair. How is that even possible to do after such a reckless drive? “You okay Ava?”

“Yeah,” Ava clears her throat, “Perfectly fine, Lance. No thanks to your driving, though.” Sara rolls her eyes and walks over to Ava. Carefully, Sara tucks a hair behind Ava’s ear.

“You’re alive, aren’t you?” She says as she takes a step back. All Ava can do is nod. Before Ava can chastise Sara’s driving any further and before Sara can poke fun at her anymore, Quentin pulls in with Laurel, Dinah, and all of their luggage. “Show time,” Sara mutters as she grabs Ava’s hand and walks over to the cruiser.

Quentin hops out of the driver’s seat and immediately pops the trunk.

“Alright, girls, I can’t wait to chitchat and catch up and all that good stuff but we needa get this stuff up those stairs first,” he says as he unloads the back.

“Dad, we know,” Laurel says grabbing a bag. “There’s, like, four bags max and an elevator in between. We’ve got this.”

“Please, let me,” Ava says, letting go of Sara’s hand and crossing over to Laurel to grab the bag from her.

“Babe, that’s my bag. I can grab it from Laurel,” Sara says, also walking over to her sister.

“Seriously, where were you girls when I had groceries a few hours ago?” Dinah laughs. Sara exchanges a look with Ava that she can immediately tell means ‘tone it down and grab your own bags’ so she does just that.

“Whatever,” Quentin says. “Just grab the bags, girls.” 

“What are you doing?” Sara hisses at Ava as they walk a few paces behind the rest of the Lance family.

“I’m just trying to be a good fiancée,” Ava whispers back.

“You’re being weird,” Sara quickly whispers before they enter the lobby.

“So, Ava!” Laurel starts as they get into the elevator, “Tell us about yourself! I feel like we barely know the woman Sara is bringing home for the holidays.”

“Jesus, Laurel. Can’t this wait until we’re actually in the apartment?” Sara rolls her eyes as Ava stares wide-eyed at the woman.

“She’s gotta point, Sar,” Quentin says. Dinah shoots him a look to back off so he continues, “But so does Sara, Laurel. We can learn all about your sister’s girlfriend after they get settled.”

The five of them make it into the apartment and Laurel directs them to a guest bedroom where they will be staying. After they put their bags down and unpack some of their clothes, Sara turns to Ava.

“You ready?” She asks, grabbing the taller woman’s shoulders.

“Yes? I think I can handle your family, Sara…” Ava shrugs her hands off of her. “You do remember that I work with many people with a lot more power than your family on a daily basis, right?” 

“Yeah I do realize that, Ava. I realize that because I do too. What  _ you _ don’t realize is that literally none of them can hold a candle to the Lance family interrogation method.”

“They can’t be  _ that _ bad.”

“Just know, it wouldn’t be weird if you didn’t want to answer some of their questions. It’d actually probably be weirder if you answered all of them. If anything is too much or if it’s something we didn’t discuss, just squeeze my hand and I’ll take over, okay? Oh! And where do we stand on PDA?” 

“What type of PDA are we talking about?” Ava narrows her eyes just a little bit.

“Well, obviously we’ve both been fine with hand holding but would it be too weird if I, like, kissed your cheek or something to sell it?” Ava gulps. She forgot about how much physical affection will potentially be needed to prove that they’re even dating, let alone engaged.

“No. Yeah that’ll be okay, I guess,” Ava says quickly. “I mean, if we didn’t ever touch, it’d obviously be suspicious. Just. Just don’t do anything too much.”

“That’s why I asked permission now,” Sara says as she grabs her hand and pulls her towards the door. “I’m not a creep Ava.”

“Ava!” Laurel smiles when she notices the two women enter the room, “Come. Sit. We seriously would love to get to know you better.” Ava smiles and Sara tenses up beside her.

“Of course,” Ava smiles easily back. “I’ve heard so much about all of you but I’d love to learn about Sara’s family more too.”

“Sure,” Laurel says practically waving off Ava’s comment but still smiling at the taller woman as Sara and her take a seat on the couch opposite her. “So, how long have you and my sister been together?” Ava looks over at Sara as if to tell her ‘this is easy’ and smiles.

“Well, Sara and I have been working together for the past, what? 5 years? And we started dating a little over two years ago.”

“Two and a half,” Sara corrects. Ava’s smile grows a little forced.

“Right, sorry. Two and a half years ago.”

“How come you’ve never come for the holidays before then?” Quentin asks, taking a seat next to Laurel.

“Dad--” Sara starts but Ava cuts her off.

“I’ve had to work the past few years on Christmas Eve and New Years Eve so I’ve found it easier just to stay at home in New York.”

“Are you from New York originally?” Laurel asks, leaning down, resting her elbows on her knees to somehow get closer to Ava.

“No,” Ava says looking over at Sara. “I’m originally from Vancouver but spent a lot of time growing up in Fresno. My dad had a job there so I call it my hometown most of the time. I moved back to Vancouver after high school and moved to New York a few years after college for the Waverider Magazine.”

“Ah, so you’re Canadian?” Quentin asks.

“We don’t know that. She could be a US citizen,” Laurel says. Sara glares at her dad and sister. This was one of the moments where having a detective and a lawyer as a part of her immediate family is really annoying. Cross-examining her so-called girlfriend is not her idea of a fun family bonding activity.

“Guys, Ava’s not a witness,” Sara says plainly.

“We aren’t treating her like she is, Sara,” Laurel says. Right when Sara opens her mouth to argue with her, Dinah steps in between the sisters.

“Girls, maybe that enough for now. Who wants some tea?” She sternly looks at Quentin who quickly stands up beside her.

“I could use some tea,” Sara says. “Ava?”

“Tea sounds nice, thank you,” Ava smiles weakly at her. Laurel just nods at her mom but continues looking over at Ava as if she was some puzzle she needed to figure out.

“So how come you’re spending Christmas with us if it’s your first year in awhile where you get to take the time off?” Laurel asks as soon as her parents are out of the room.

“Laurel, Mom literally  _ just _ said it was enough,” Sara says gripping Ava’s hand a little harder than before. Ava just looks over at Sara for a second then turns back to Laurel.

“I wanted to be here with Sara,” she says and takes a deep breath, “I mean missing Christmas with her is one thing but I feel bad missing her birthday every year.” Sara loosens her grip for a second and glances at Ava, surprised she even knew that it was her birthday coming up, and Laurel smiles. At least it was the right answer. That doesn’t stop Laurel from pushing further, however.

“What about your family? I mean, I think Sara would be able to go to Canada, or Fresno, or where ever they are one of these years so you can spend the holidays with them,” Laurel says, still smiling. Ava squeezes Sara’s hand once without letting her own smile falter and Sara glances at her to make sure she’s okay.

“Laurel, we’ve had a long day,” Sara starts. Laurel furrows her brow and looks at her younger sister, obviously confused on why that’s the question that struck a nerve. “Can we finish this interrogation later?”

“Sara, this is hardly an interrogation. I’m just trying to get to know your girlfriend that you’ve been apparently dating for more than a few  _ years _ .”

“I’ve apologized over the phone for not telling you sooner,” Sara bites back. Ava immediately feels claustrophobic in the seat next to Sara. Sara lets go of her hand to turn further towards her sister and Ava takes it as an opportunity to quickly get up.

“I’m going to go see if your parents need any help,” Ava says as Sara’s eyes follow her up. Sara gives her a glare that lasts long enough for her to see but hopefully not long enough for Laurel to notice. Ava turns on her heels and walks in the direction Dinah and Quentin disappeared in, praying it leads to the kitchen as she hears the sisters continue to bicker behind her.

When Ava enters the kitchen, Quentin is quietly sitting at the table reading some paperwork while Dinah works her way around the kitchen grabbing mugs and the tea from the cabinets. Ava clears her throat to make her presence known and both of Sara’s parents look over at her. Dinah smiles at her and Quentin makes a face akin to indigestion. 

“Ava!” Dinah says as she places the mugs on the counter. “What can we do for you?”

“Hi,” Ava says awkwardly, “I was actually coming to see if there was any way I could help you guys out with the tea.”

“The girls are arguin’ in there, aren’t they?” Quentin asks and his face softens a little. Ava closes her eyes for half a second and takes a deep breath before giving a short nod. “They’ll get over themselves soon. They always do. I wouldn’t worry if I were you.” 

Dinah quickly puts Ava to work with getting the milk and sugar out and pouring the tea itself into the mugs while asking light questions about the magazine and Ava’s position there.

“So, lemme make sure I got this right,” Quentin says, standing up and walking over to the women at the counter, “My baby girl is your secretary at this, this magazine, right?”

“Sara’s actually my assistant,” Ava corrects.

“What’s the difference?” 

“An assistant has more responsibilities than a secretary would.” 

“Y’do realize Sara moved all the way across the country to be an editor, right?” Quentin asks Ava.

“I do, yes,” Ava says quietly as she wishes she never left the living room.

“Quentin…” Dinah warns but he ignores her.

“So what’s she doin’ as an assistant still? She’s been workin’ for you for five years now.”

“I realize that, sir. I actually can’t do much about it, though.” Quentin makes a face that tells Ava he saw straight through that blatant lie.

“You’re the editor-in-chief, right? I mean you gotta have a bit more of a say than you’re lettin’ on about who’s what and who’s your secretary or assistant or whatever it is you call her.”

“Quentin,” Dinah says a little harsher this time but Quentin doesn’t break the stare he’s had on Ava since the beginning of this conversation. Ava  _ really _ wishes she had just stayed with Sara.

“I do, yeah,” Ava concedes but doesn’t back down as the wheels turn in her head, “I just didn’t think it was right to give Sara a promotion while we were romantically involved without the office knowing. It would’ve seemed bad for both of us once people found out about the relationship.” Quentin narrows his eyes but lets out a breath. Ava is glad she thought of something that actually made sense fast enough for the man. If she didn’t know that he’s wrapped around Sara’s finger, she would’ve feared being arrested by just the way he was looking at her. 

“Well,” he says finally looking over at Dinah then back at Ava, “See, that makes more sense. You coulda led with that.”

“Dad, I let Ava out of my sight for one second and you’ve got her cornered in the kitchen?” Sara says more as a statement than a question as she enters the room and strides over in between her parents and Ava.

“Honey she isn’t cornered,” Quentin says taking a step back. “You always this dramatic?” Sara feigns shock and hurt at the question.

“Ava, are you going to let him talk to me this way?” Sara whips her head around to face her and Ava’s face drops.

“I-I-” She stammers for a good second before Sara’s face breaks into a wide smile. 

“You’re concerned about your sister and I scarin’ her off when you’ve got her scared straight?” Quentin laughs. Sara leans up onto her toes and presses a gentle kiss to Ava’s cheek. Ava feels a blush wash over her body at both the comment from Quentin and Sara’s small gesture. She tries to remind herself that she’s still Sara’s boss and she’ll probably never have to interact with her family after this week. All of this will be over soon enough. 

The evening continues on smoothly after that. They gather around in the living room for a little bit and chat before Dinah and Quentin goes into the kitchen to start dinner. Sara keeps chastising her sister for asking way too many questions but Ava answers most of them freely. That is, of course, until the mention of her own family is brought up again. After bickering with Sara for a brief second but quickly making up, Laurel turns to Ava and asks her if she has any siblings and Ava freezes. 

“I, uh, I did,” Ava says after a beat. “I had a younger sister.”

“Oh,” Laurel says picking up on the past tense. “I’m sorry.” Ava smiles softly and briefly at the sentiment.

“No, it’s okay. Don’t worry about it. She passed away a little while back,” Ava says. “I just don’t talk about my family much.”

“Sara,” Quentin interrupts from the doorway, “Can I talk to you for a second?”   


“Yeah, what’s up?” Sara asks, not getting up from her seat next to Ava.

“Alone,” Quentin clarifies.

“Uh, yeah. We were just in the middle of a kinda heavy conversation though. And whatever it is, I’m sure you can say it in front of Ava and Laurel.”

“Sara,” Dinah starts. She obviously knows whatever Quentin has to say would be better in private.

“No, no, you’re right,” Quentin says to Sara. “I don’t think you and Ava should be together.” Sara is stunned for a second and so is Ava. “I told you I’d rather talk to you about this alone.” Sara breathes out a laugh.

“Dad, that’s really not your say,” she states plainly. “You don’t really get to say who I’m with. And Ava’s who I want to be with.”

“Sar, this has little to do with who Ava is as a person,” Quentin says and looks over at the woman in question, “Really. No offense meant here.”

“Offense probably taken,” Sara cuts in. “I mean, Jesus, Dad.”

“Hey, will you just listen for a second? Dating your boss? Sara, that’s bad news no matter what way you spin it, baby. This can really blow up in your faces if you’re not careful.” 

“I can assure you that we have this all handled,” Ava speaks with a surprisingly calm and even tone for the topic of this conversation. “We’re both very capable at our jobs and have been very careful with the workplace situation.”

“Well, I’m glad to hear that but I still think you two should reconsider all this. I’d hate for something like a relationship to get in the way of Sara’s job and dreams.”

“Dad, why can’t you trust we have this covered?”   


“I’m your dad, Sara! I’m gonna worry about you whether you like it or not.”

“Mom, do you agree with him?” Sara turns on her mother who has been relatively quiet throughout this whole thing but her mother won’t meet her eyes. “Seriously?”   


“Sara, we’re just worried,” she says. “This was very sudden for us. I know you two have had a few years but you gave us a day to get used to you and Ava as a couple. Truth be told, you weren’t always giving a glowing review as a boss.”

“ _ Mom. _ Please try to let that go and just try to get used to this.” Sara wishes she could vanish. This was definitely not how she expected her holiday/birthday week to go if you had asked her even a few days ago. 

“They’re trying, Sara,” Laurel says to her sister.   


“Please try harder.”

“It’s easier said than done,” Quentin cuts back in as he sits across from Sara and Ava. Ava really has to bite her tongue throughout all of this. She wants to help Sara in some way but she knows that whatever she says will really not be the right thing to say. “I mean, where do you two see this goin’? What’s your end plan? When you two break up, what next? You’re her secretary--”

“Assistant,” Ava corrects quietly.

“Sorry.  _ Assistant _ . You’re gonna be forced to see each other every day no matter what happens here.”

“We’re engaged,” Sara blurts out without second thought.

  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Seriously again, thank you for all the comments and kudos. I love it all and I read every single one and cherish it. Reach out on twitter if you want @skylawrites! Trying to get chapters out when I can! I don't currently have a schedule for releases and I might make one soon but who knows lol


	6. Chapter 6

Quentin chokes on the sentence he had planned to follow up with and ends up coughing and sputtering in his seat as Dinah rubs his back to make sure he’s okay. Laurel just stares at Sara with wide eyes and a tight-lipped forced smile. Sara isn’t sure it’s possible but Ava is somehow sitting even straighter up in her seat after Sara’s revelation. After a tense second, it’s Laurel who breaks the silence.

“I’m sorry, what?”

“I was planning on telling you guys at a better time but…” Sara doesn’t take her eyes off of her dad who’s staring at the couple with a mixture of confusion and hurt on his face. “I’m sorry I didn’t tell you sooner or in a better way.”   


“Sara, when did this happen?” Her mom asks quietly. Sara’s eyes dart to Ava and Ava knows it’s her turn to pick up the slack.

“Two months ago,” Ava says. She has a hard time sounding not rehearsed but if the others notice, they don’t mention it.

“Two months ago? And you didn’t even call to let us know?” Sara’s eyes fall on Laurel as she asks this question.

“Sorry. I really am. I knew I would be seeing you guys soon though so I just wanted to tell you in person,” Sara says. The sincerity in her voice takes Ava by surprise. Sara is a better actor than Ava would have ever pinned her as before all of this and it seems to really be working. She guesses they both just really need both ends of their agreement to work out.

Before Ava could think of something to say to fill the silence that had fallen over the room, Laurel gets up from her seat and walks over to them. She bends down and envelopes Sara in a hug.

“I’m happy for you,” she whispers into her sister’s hair. Sara visibly relaxes into her hug. Quentin’s face relaxes and so does Dinah’s so Ava tries her best to relax as well.

“If you’re happy, I’m happy too,” Dinah smiles at her daughter. “I really wish you had told us sooner, though. Your grandmother will be at the house tomorrow and you know how she gets.”

“How does she get?” Ava asks nobody in particular.

“She doesn’t really like… surprises,” Sara says softly as Laurel lets go of her. “She’ll be fine that you’re a woman and will be all happy if I am and yada yada yada but she will  _ need _ every single detail there is and will also go on her little thing she does about how ‘I’m not going to be alive forever’. It’s a real bummer of a spiel to say the least.”

“And I want every single detail as well,” Laurel says as she returns to her seat. Quentin still hasn’t said a word and Sara ignores everyone else in the room as she looks at him. 

“Dad…” 

“Darlin’, I am happy for you. I really am. I’m just surprised,” he replies. His voice, although a little strained, seems sincere enough for Sara. 

* * *

 

Ava didn’t expect Sara to drop the news like that. It was sudden and not at all done gracefully. She didn’t really mind how her family found out as long as they did but that was a bombshell to say the least. After a good second of Lance Family Bonding, Ava lets out a deliberate yawn to indicate how late it’s getting which causes Sara to have to try and mask a glare in her direction but Laurel checks her phone and sees the time. 

“Jeeze, it’s getting late. You guys have probably had a pretty long day,” Laurel says as she stands up. 

“Your dad and I should probably get going home,” Dinah follows Laurel off the couch. “We love you girls very much. And Ava, it was nice to finally put a face to the stories.” Dinah and Quentin hug their daughters as they start to leave and, right when Ava is turning to go down the hall towards the guest bedroom, Dinah pulls Ava into a semi-awkward hug. Ava tenses up immediately but puts her arms around her anyway. When Dinah releases her and smiles, Ava does her best to give her a mostly convincing smile back. She’s not used to this much “family time” and it’s beginning to show.

“Alright, well, you three should get to bed,” Quentin says as he puts his jacket on. He then turns to Sara, “I think Laurel and your mom were talkin’ ‘bout gettin’ Ava alone and into the city to finish up some last minute shoppin’ or bondin’ or whatnot. So, uh, get some sleep. You and I can have a day with grandma and catch up on, well, everything.” Sara smiles softly at her dad before giving Ava a quick mischievous look.

“Sounds fantastic, daddy. I know Ava  _ loves  _ shopping and will love hanging out with Laurel and mom for the day,” she says in her sweetest voice. “We’ll meet you guys at the house tomorrow morning?” 

“Bright and early,” Dinah says as they exit the apartment. “Grandma will be here at 7 tomorrow and we really don’t want to have to entertain her all alone for more than a few hours.”

After they leave, Laurel says goodnight and the three of them go off to the two seperate bedrooms.

“What the fuck,” Ava says as soon as the guest room door is closed.

“What?” Sara asks as if she doesn’t know what she just did.

“I ‘love’ shopping now?”

“Hey, I get to have fun too. Plus, I really doubt you got any Christmas gifts or a birthday gift for me, your fiancée. Which, frankly, would be weird, wouldn’t it?”

“Can’t we just say we’re not doing gifts this year?” Ava asks as she sits down on the bed. “Plenty of couples don’t get each other gifts.”

“I mean you can say that we’re not doing gifts if you want,” Sara places one of the pillows from the bed onto the floor and sits beside it, “But I already got you one so you’d probably seem like an ass.” Ava groans.

“What do you want then?”

“C’mon, Ava. I got you a gift with no help. Just get me one thing for my birthday and Christmas and I’ll pretend to love it.”

“Fine,” Ava says. She knows she shouldn’t be  _ that _ person and get her a joint gi ft for both occasions but is too tired to argue any longer. “Are you okay on the floor?”

“Yeah, I can sleep pretty much anywhere,” Sara says as she takes off her shirt. Ava quickly looks away as Sara changes nonchalantly into her pajamas.

“Jesus, Sara,” Ava says under her breath.

“What? Modest much, Sharpe?” Sara asks with a laugh. “I won’t look but you should probably change out of those jeans. You’ll be very uncomfortable all night. If you change in the bathroom and Laurel sees that, it’ll just be weird.”

“Fine,” Ava says as she turns her back to change into her own pajamas. She can feel Sara’s eyes on her but refuses to give her the satisfaction of being called out on it. As soon as she’s changed, she gets under the covers and turns on her side to face Sara. “You’re sure you’re good on the floor? I can switch with you tomorrow if you like.”

“Yes, Ava. I’m fine. Like I said before, I can sleep anywhere.”

“What does that even mean?” Ava asks as Sara yawns and stretches out.

“It doesn’t matter is what it means,” Sara replies through her yawn. 

“Why are we staying with your sister anyway?” Ava asks. “We could’ve easily gotten a hotel.”

“Laurel insisted. Plus, my parents wouldn’t want us in a hotel. It was either this or 24/7 with my parents. This seemed way less painful.” Ava just made a noise in response. 

“You never said your dad is a cop, by the way. Or that your sister was a lawyer.”

“My dad’s a detective and I definitely have mentioned both of those things a few times in the past few years,” Sara replies shortly.

“Oh,” Ava quietly says. “Why didn’t you mention it when I agreed to this whole thing or before we came here?”

“Just for clarity sake, you dragged me into this. I didn’t have much of a choice. And I figured you knew.” 

“I’m sorry,” Ava mutters.

“What?” Sara asks with a small smile.

“You heard me,” Ava says as she turns on her side away from Sara. She looks around the room. There’s a lot of family photos and, on the desk, she sees a picture of a younger Sara with a woman in front of a building that appears to be built straight into a mountain. “Where’s that?” She asks as she motions over to the photo. Sara sits up to look at what she’s talking about then lays right back down.

“Nanda Parbat,” she says as she turns her back to the bed. She doesn’t offer up any more information about it and Ava is about to ask her who the woman is but notices that Sara had already fallen asleep. Or at least was pretending to sleep. Either way, she doesn’t want to bother to wake her.

The next morning, Sara wakes up to the sound of Laurel knocking on the door. Quickly, she jumps up from the ground and throws the pillow she was using onto the bed, accidentally hitting Ava with it in the process. Ava wakes with a start and glares at Sara. Right before she can yell at her, Laurel knocks again but a little heavier.

“Hey, we’ve got to get going soon. Mom and Dad don’t want us to be too late,” Laurel says through the door. “I’m coming in in a second. Please be decent.” Sara leaps into the bed and shoves Ava to make room causing the latter to almost fall off. Ava fixes her position on the bed and Sara wraps her arm around the taller woman’s waist and awkwardly places her head on her chest. Ava instinctively puts her arm around her and closes her eyes as the door opens slowly. Laurel pokes her head in and sees them (only slightly awkwardly) cuddling and sighs in relief that it’s such an innocent scene. Sara lifts her head as if she had just woken up and turns to her sister.

“Oh hey, Laurel,” she says as she yawns. “What time is it?”

“It’s 7:30,” Laurel smiles at her sister. “Now get your ass out of bed and let’s get going.” Sara laughs at the shift of tone and nudges Ava who slowly opens her eyes again.

“Aves, we’ve gotta get up,” Sara says as Laurel waits in the room for both of them to be awake. Ava hums in agreement and removes her arm from Sara and begins to sit up. 

“Alright, well, I’ll let you two get dressed but  please _just_ get dressed and don’t take forever,” Laurel says as she makes her way to the door.

“No promises,” Sara jokes and pulls Ava back in, closer than before, as Laurel looks at them while she closes the door behind her. As soon as the door shuts, the two women quickly separate.

“‘Aves’?” Ava questions.

“Is that okay?” Sara asks.

“Yeah, no, it’s fine. No one has ever called me ‘Aves’ before, though.”

Sara decides not to comment on the fact that Ava apparently has never had a nickname before and just gets dressed instead. As soon as she’s fully dressed, she turns and sees Ava, also fully dressed, looking at the picture on the desk again.

“Who’s that with you?” Ava asks when she sees Sara looking at her.

“Her name is Nyssa. She was… a friend. We met in Nanda Parbat. It’s a city in the Himalayas,” Sara says as she walks over to the photo and Ava. Ava goes to ask another question but Sara cuts her off, “I’ll tell you more about it later but, right now, Laurel might literally kill us if we take much longer.” As soon as she finishes saying that, there’s another knock on the door.

“Guys, I’m serious.”

“We’re coming,” Sara says as she walks over to open the door. Her sister is standing in the hall with her arms crossed, waiting for the two of them to get their shoes on so they can get going. 

“We’re not taking your motorcycle, are we?” Ava asks as they head out of the apartment. Laurel laughs at the question and Sara rolls her eyes.

“Don’t worry,” Laurel says as they reach the elevator, “We’ll take my car. Grandma hates the motorcycle.”

“See, Lance? I knew your grandmother and I would get along well. Nothing to worry about,” Ava smiles, softly nudging Sara as they wait in the elevator and Laurel laughs again.

“God this is going to be brutal, isn’t it?” Sara groans.

The ride to the Lance house is fairly short. Ava finds she actually doesn’t mind talking with Laurel and Laurel promises to show her all of Sara’s childhood photos as soon as they arrive much to Sara’s chagrin.

“You’re going to love the one of her as Peter Pan,” Laurel says as she pulls into the driveway. 

“You were Peter Pan?” Ava asks Sara with wide-eyes. “Please tell me there’s footage of that.”

“Okay, okay. I was  _ barely _ Peter Pan,” Sara says as they climb out of the car. “I got on stage, froze, and forgot all my lines.” Laurel laughs at the memory.

“Oh god. What did you do?” Ava asks, actually invested in the story now.

“I broke out in a tap dance and ran off stage crying,” Sara cringes at her own memory which makes Laurel laugh again.

“It was painfully adorable,” Laurel says as they walk towards the house.

“You can dance?” Ava asks. Sara smiles at her, amused at the question but confused at the interest she suddenly has. 

“Sara, how does your fiancée not know you can dance?” Laurel asks. “That’s like not knowing you’re a black belt.” Before Ava can comment on that, Sara rolls her eyes.

“It’s never come up. How often do you go ‘hey, can you dance?’” 

“Literally first question on the first date,” Laurel deadpans and Ava finds herself laughing. “I mean, come on. You’ve gotta take her dancing sometime.”

“What is this, 1950?” Sara asks as the front door swings open before they even knock. A short, older woman is standing in the doorway before quickly walking out onto the porch and grabbing Sara and Laurel into a hug.

“My girls!” She says as she squeezes the two Lances. “Oh, you’re getting so tall!”

“We’re adults, Grandma,” Laurel smiles. “Sara’s been that short since she was 12.”

“Hey, you’re  _ only _ an inch taller!” Sara starts to protest but then their grandma pulls back to get a better look at the two of them and sees Ava standing awkwardly off to the side.

“You must be Ava!” She says as she walks over to Ava. She throws a glance in Sara’s direction before adding, “I’ve heard so much about you!”

“Hi,” Ava says as she sticks her hand out for a handshake and is quickly pulled in for another awkward hug.

“Oh, we’re a hugging family,” Sara’s grandmother says.

“We’re really not…” Sara mutters and Laurel slaps her arm, thoroughly enjoying the uncomfortable look on Ava’s face. Sara clears her throat to try and save Ava from the situation, “Alright, Gammy. Let’s get inside.” As her grandmother lets go of Ava and starts to head back inside, Sara reaches over and takes Ava’s hand. Ava looks over to her and nods her head as if to say ‘let’s do this’ and they follow closely behind Laurel, still hand-in-hand.

Sara half-listens to her grandmother talk about her trip from Central City and half-goes through what she’s going to say to her in her head as they sit in the living room. She’s pulled out of the her own world when she hears her grandmother ask about the engagement.

“Sorry, what?” Sara asks, making sure she heard her correctly.

“You and Ava. Who proposed to who?” Her grandmother asks just as Quentin walks into the room to join the rest of the family,

“Wait. Who told you?” Sara asks as she shoots her dad a glare that could kill, knowing he’s the one who told his mother.

“She guessed!” He says as he throws up his hands in surrender. Ava frowns in obvious confusion.

“How?” She and Sara ask at the same time.

“You always go on and on about her every time we see you. I thought it was bound to happen and when I heard she was coming for the holidays, I just figured,” her grandmother replies with a kind smile that neither of the women can fully return (although they try).

“You talk about me?” Ava asks sincerely. 

“Well, yeah,” Sara says, letting go of her hand, now a little self-conscious.

“Don’t worry,” Laurel says with a smile. “She never said anything that wasn’t, well, truthful.” She winks with the last word, calling back to Ava’s word choice when they first met. Ava half-heartedly laughs at that, knowing the stories they’ve heard probably don’t paint her in a great light.

“So?” Sara’s grandmother prompts. “Who proposed?”

“I did,” Ava and Sara say at the same time and quickly look at each other. The whole family is looking at them questioningly at that point.

“Well,” Sara says, smiling forcibly, “Ava proposed but I was planning on it.”

“I beat her to the punch,” Ava smiles easily.

“Barely.”

“But I did.”

“Oh you two are too cute,” her grandmother interrupts their weird argument. “How did it all happen? I want to hear everything!”

“It was very--” Sara starts but is cut off by Ava.

“Very romantic.”

“Yeah, very romantic.”

“We went out for a very nice dinner and --”

“She didn’t propose in public. She’s very thoughtful that way,” Sara cuts her off this time. Dinah smiles at that part of the story. Ava’s smile grows forced as Sara’s eases.

“Nope,” She says looking at Sara. “I know her way better than that. Instead, we went to my apartment after dinner.”

“We went to her apartment to pick up the keys to my place. I forgot them there before dinner,” Sara fills in. Ava pointedly looks at her and holds back on asking why they would do that.

“You two aren’t living together?” Laurel asks. Sara’s smile goes back to being painfully forced.

“We split the time between the two places. We still haven’t decided which we’re going to sell yet,” Sara says.

“Anyways, that’s what I told Sara we were doing at least,” Ava says. “When we actually arrived at my apartment --”

“There were rose petals all over the ground it was --”

“A mess. The gardener outside messed up the front walk,” Ava says with a smile in Sara’s direction.

“It certainly set the mood though,” Sara smiles back at her. Although they were smiling at each other, there was an obvious fire behind their eyes. “When we made it to the apartment, Ava was acting all weird so I asked her what was going on. I was convinced she was going to end things.”

“But obviously I didn’t,” Ava says looking back to Sara’s family. “I sat her down and told her how much I love her --”

“And she cried,” Sara says giving a teasing smile to her family. 

“I didn’t cry.”

“You so did. You definitely teared up as you got down on one knee,” Sara smiles. Ava takes a steadying breath before continuing.

“Fine. I might have teared up a little but, when I asked Sara to marry me --”

“I stood up and walked away.”

“Wait, why would you walk away?” Quentin interrupts.

“That’s what I said,” Ava says, throwing a questioning look in Sara’s direction. 

“I walked away because, in my purse on the counter, I had a ring for Ava,” Sara says. Ava has to suppress an eyeroll as Sara’s sister, mother, and grandmother all let out an ‘aww’.

“Can we see them?” Dinah asks.

“See what?” Ava asks after a beat.

“The rings,” Dinah clarifies with a confused smile.

“Oh. Oh! The rings!” Sara says as she and Ava stare at each other for a second. “We, uh, we left them at home.”

“Why would you do that?” Sara’s grandmother asks bluntly.

“We had to get them resized,” Ava starts saying. Sara nods vigorously.

“And I learned Ava apparently doesn’t trust air travel anyways,” Sara adds in a joking tone. She immediately regrets making the joke when Ava tenses but the tension in Ava’s already-straight back eases almost as soon as Sara turns to look at her.

“Well, on that note, do you ladies want to head out for your shopping day in the city?” Quentin asks after clearing his throat

“Yes,” Laurel says enthusiastically. “I can’t wait to show you around Starling, Ava. Especially without  _ that one. _ ” She jerks her head at Sara and Ava lets out a laugh. As Ava, Laurel, and Dinah all stand up to get going, Sara’s grandmother stops them.

“Sara,” She says sternly. “Are you really going to let your  _ fiancée  _ leave without a kiss.” Sara smiles a tight-lipped, wide-eyed smile at her grandmother.  _ Why are grandparents so obsessed with their grandchildren kissing their partners? _

“Oh,” Ava and Sara both say and awkwardly laugh at the same time. Sara’s mind is racing on how they’re going to go about this. They had talked about kissing the other day but, now that it’s come up, Sara can’t remember for the life of her what they decided on. Thinking on her feet, Ava leans down to Sara and kisses her cheek lightly. 

“Oh come on,” Sara’s grandmother says. “What was that?” 

“Seriously Gammy?” Sara asks and her grandmother just nods. She looks at Ava who just nods very slightly. She leans up on the balls of her feet to reach Ava’s face, cups her cheeks in her hands, and gently presses her lips against Ava’s. Sara’s lips are softer than Ava ever imagined (not that she had imagined what they felt like) and she finds her hands on Sara’s waist, pulling her closer. One of Sara’s hands moves from her face to the back of her neck and she deepens the kiss. Quentin clears his throat and Laurel lets out a laugh causing them to break apart, both flushed.

  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I was picturing the Lance Grandmother as Betty White like in the movie lol. Huge shout-out to my twin, Haley, for convincing me of that
> 
> Comments are always appreciated! I know I don't really respond to them but I love reading them!! As always, feel free to reach out on twitter @skylawrites


	7. Chapter 7

Sitting in the backseat of Laurel’s car, Ava can’t shake the memory of Sara’s lips on her own. She stares out the window and goes back over the kiss in her head as if it were something that needed to be scientifically studied. It was a nice kiss for a first kiss. She reminds herself that it will probably also be the last kiss and ignores the ache she feels at that thought. Sara is still her assistant for the time being. They’re barely even friends. They’re not friends. Ava knew next to nothing about her before this trip and is still probably missing large, important chunks of information. But that didn’t matter. As soon as they leave Star City and get the interviews over with, they’ll get married and go on their own ways. Easy. 

Ava is pulled from her thoughts when Laurel pulls into a parking space near a large strip of stores.

“See? You’re getting much better at parallel parking,” Dinah says, obviously midway through a conversation Ava had completely missed. 

“Thanks, Mom,” Laurel says as she turns the car off. She turns around her seat to smile at Ava, “Sara told me you were behind on Christmas-slash-birthday shopping last night. You ready to face the Christmas Eve crowds and get it over with?”

“I’ve braved worse,” Ava says smiling back at her. 

“Good,” Dinah says, unbuckling to get out of the car, “That’s exactly the attitude we need going into this. Let’s go girls.”

Ava and Laurel follow Dinah onto the sidewalk and the Lance women quickly start making a plan of action. Ava listens closely as they figure out the best route for the stores they want to hit and where they can get lunch when it comes time. Ava loses track of the conversation when they start to talk about what the better restaurant is in the area and tries to think of possible gifts she can get Sara without being too obvious that she knows little about her. When the three women start walking towards the first store, Ava pulls out her phone in a last ditch effort.

**Aves** (09:01)

_ Hey. I have no idea what to get you and don’t want to seem like an idiot. I want to get you something you would actually like, as well. _

**Sara Lance** (09:01)

_ Aves literally get me whatever. It’s not a big deal _

**Aves** (09:03)

_ Fine. _

**Sara Lance** (09:05)

_ I got you a good gift tho lol  _

Ava shoves her phone back into her pocket at the smug text and continues to follow Laurel and Dinah through the crowd to the other end of the stripmall. Laurel slows down to walk beside Ava when she notices her trailing behind.

“So has Sara told you much about our childhood?” Laurel asks to fill the silence.

“No, not really,” Ava truthfully answers. “She’ll tell me small things here and there but I’d love to hear more.”

“God, where to begin?” Laurel says, dodging a mother and a stroller coming straight at her. “Daddy bought her a canary when she was ten. We all  _ hated  _ it. It was the loudest, most obnoxious thing in the house. She loved it though.” Ava smiles softly while listening to the story. “We’ve been close since we were kids. We fought and stuff like all sisters but she’s been there for me most of the time.”

“Most of the time?” Ava asks. Dinah looks over at Laurel to make sure that story is one she wants to get into but Laurel just go on with it.

“Yeah, well, there was the time my now ex-boyfriend cheated on me. With her. It was a bit of a rough patch in our relationship but we obviously made up.”

“Oh wow. That’s… that’s pretty messed up,” Ava says and Laurel laughs and nods.

“Yeah. We were kids though. She’s obviously grown up. I mean you’re nothing like Oliver Queen.” Ava recognizes that name but has to think for a second to place it. When she does she turns wide-eyed to Laurel.

“You dated  _ Oliver Queen _ ? As in the billionaire playboy Oliver Queen? And he cheated on you with  _ Sara _ ?” 

“Yeah,” Laurel laughs again. “Sara really hasn’t told you much about our childhood, has she? Ollie has been a friend of ours for a long time. That’s actually where we’re going tomorrow. Did she not tell you that?”

“No, she forgot to mention we were going to the Queens for Christmas,” Ava says now even more worried about what gifts she’s going to get Sara. More eyes and more people who’ve known Sara much longer and much better than she has. 

“Full of surprises, isn’t she?” Dinah says with a laugh. “Sara loves to keep people on their toes.”

“Yeah,” Ava half-heartedly laughs. 

“Did she tell you about her time when she spent two years just traveling Asia?” Laurel asks as if that’s a normal thing for someone to just do.

“She mentioned it,” Ava lies, “But she didn’t go into much detail.”

“It’s probably not our place, then,” Dinah says and gives Laurel a look that tells her not to continue on about it. 

They reach their first destination and Laurel and Dinah split off to look at things throughout the store and to let Ava try and find presents for Sara. While she’s browsing, Ava pulls her phone back out.

**Aves** (09:20)

_ You went to Asia for two years? _

**Sara Lance** (09:25)

_ Yeah?  _

**Aves** (09:25)

_ How has this never come up? _

**Sara Lance** (09:26)

_ Idk. I did tell you about the Himalayas _

**Aves** (09:30)

_ Okay, you really didn’t. You need to tell me more about this when we get back.  _

_ Also, Oliver Queen? _

**Sara Lance** (09:30)

_ Oh right, we’re going to the queens tomorrow  _ 😇

**Aves** (09:32)

_ You’re insufferable. _

**Sara Lance** (09:33)

_ And im all urs bby  _ 😘😘😘

Ava rolls her eyes as she once again shoves her phone back into her pocket. She looks through the shop but absolutely nothing jumps out at her as something anyone would want, let alone Sara. Right when she realizes this store is probably a bust, the Lance women find her to let her know the same thing. 

When they get to the next store, Dinah immediately beelines to the back and starts looking through the mostly empty clearance rack. Laurel and Ava idly navigate through the crowd. When Ava reaches a table in the center of the store, something catches her eye. She picks up the journal from the center and suddenly Laurel is at her side.

“Oh, she’d love that,” Laurel says, looking at the cover. “You’ve got to get that.”

“That’s what I was thinking,” Ava says, turning it over in her hands to get a better look at it. It’s a simple cover with a black-and-white drawing of a canary flying out of a cage on the center.  _ One down, one to go. _

* * *

 

Back at the Lance household, Sara sits in the living room, listening to her grandmother and father catch up. Truth be told, she’s only half-listening. Her mind is preoccupied by the memory of Ava. Ava’s hands on her waist. Ava’s mouth on hers. She hadn’t kissed anyone like that in a while. It was over before it really began and Sara yearned for more. She pushes that thought out of her mind as soon as it enters, though. 

Sara kicks herself for even thinking like that. First of all, Ava’s her boss. And a bit of a bitch. Even though she’s worked for her for five years, it’s been proven time and time again that Ava knows next to nothing about her. Wanting to kiss her again makes Sara’s stomach flip. It has to be because she just is touch starved. Ava is pretty. Ava isn’t pretty. Ava’s beautiful but Sara knows she deserves better than  _ her. _ Someone who actually knows something as simple as her favorite color. Someone who listens when she talks.

The silence in the room brings Sara back to the present. She doesn’t know how long it’s been but her grandmother and dad are staring at her obviously looking for a response to a question.

“Hm?” Sara says, looking between them. “Sorry.”

“Where were you just now?” Quentin asks.

“...Here?” Sara replies, buying herself time to figure out what the question originally was. Her grandmother laughs and Quentin looks up at the ceiling for a second before looking back at her.

“No, obviously you were here, Sara. I mean were you listening before? When your grandmother asked you about your job?”   


“Oh! Yes! Sorry! Ava and I have been navigating working together well,” Sara smiles at her grandma who smiles back.

“That’s not what I asked,” she replies, still smiling. 

“Oh,” Sara’s smile drops slightly, “Okay. Fine. I wasn’t listening. What about my job?”   


“I asked you how being an editor is.”

“Oh,” Sara’s smile drops further, “I’m actually not an editor. I’m an assistant to the editor-in-chief.”

“Still?” Her grandmother’s smile hasn’t dropped at all.

“Yeah, Gammy. Still.”

“Oh! I just thought, since you’ve been there so long…”

“I am getting a promotion,” Sara replies quickly. “I’m getting promoted.”

“You are?” Quentin asks, finally jumping into the trainwreck of a conversation.

“Yeah. In January, I’ll be promoted to copy editor. It’s not a huge leap but it’s progress.”

“I’m proud of you, darlin’,” Quentin smiles kindly at her. Sara, having decided that her family is never going to find out that she blackmailed her way into the position, smiles back.

“Oh this deserves some celebration,” her grandmother says as she stands up.

“Really?” Sara asks as her grandmother walks to the kitchen to grab drinks for them. “This gets you to break out the fancy glasses from Mom and Dad’s kitchen but my engagement didn’t?”

“I barely know Ava,” her grandmother answers as she pours some champagne into the glasses. “I’ve known you much longer.” 

“I’m involved in both things, Gammy. So is Ava,” Sara laughs. Her grandmother shrugs and just hands Quentin and her two of the glasses.

“Ma, it’s ten am and I don’t drink,” Quentin hands her the glass back.

“You’re no fun,” she says, handing Sara Quentin’s glass as well. Sara just shrugs and drinks both glasses, knowing she’ll need the alcohol to get through the next few days.

* * *

 

By the fourth shop, Ava truly wishes she had just been deported on the spot. Shopping for that long was bad enough but on Christmas Eve? Torture would’ve been more appealing. She still needed to find Sara a birthday gift, though. She knows Sara had originally told her to only buy one but she’s not a total ass and knows combining birthday and Christmas gifts is inconsiderate.

Having gone into a clothing store, Ava didn’t think there would be many options for the gift but Dinah and Laurel were having fun browsing and trying to find something so Ava didn’t stop them. There’s no clothing item you can buy your fake fiancée/real assistant for their birthday without it being weird. That’s what Ava thought anyways until she saw it. It was a nice, cropped leather jacket hanging on the only rack that wasn’t swarming with people. Ava walks over and it almost feels like it was meant to be. She takes it off the rack and it certainly seems like Sara’s size and it was on sale. Ava can’t believe she got so lucky. She knew within seconds that that was definitely the gift she needed to get her. After buying it and finding Laurel in the crowd to let her know, Ava walks outside to get some air. While she waits, she checks her phone. Thankfully, all she missed was two work emails that can wait until after Christmas to be answered. 

After only a moment, Dinah and Laurel meet Ava outside and the three of them decide to grab some lunch early. They’ll have to skip three of the shops Laurel wanted to go into but nobody seemed to be complaining. The restaurant Laurel and Dinah want to take Ava to is about a 5 minute walk from the shop they’re at and they walk slowly so they can all still chat. Ava finds it a lot nicer of a day than she ever expected. She didn’t expect to actually enjoy hearing these stories from Sara’s childhood or just listening to Laurel and Dinah talking about whatever. As they round the corner to the street the restaurant is on, the crowd thins but Laurel still manages to walk straight into someone as she animatedly tells Ava about the time Sara knocked a tooth out on the swingset.

“Shit, sorry,” Laurel says, bending down immediately to pick up the bag that the woman she knocked into dropped. As she stands up to hand the bag back, she pauses for a second. “Nyssa?”   
“Laurel, hi,” The woman says as she takes the bag back. Both of the women look at each other awkwardly for a beat before Nyssa breaks the silence. “How have you been?”

“I’ve been doing well,” Laurel responds. She pauses, thinking but adds, “So has Sara.”

“That’s good,” Nyssa says. The already awkward exchange grows more awkward when Nyssa looks over and sees that Ava is studying her and Dinah is pretending that her phone is suddenly the most interesting thing in the world. “I, uh, should let you get back to your afternoon. Will you be at the Queen’s Christmas party tomorrow evening?”

“We will, yeah. I guess we’ll see you there,” Laurel says. Nyssa looks between the three women once more before walking away and Laurel lets out a sigh. “Jesus, that was awkward. Why is she even in town for that?”

“That was Nyssa?” Ava asks.

“Has Sara told you much about her?” Dinah asks as they walk into the restaurant.

“No. Just that they met somewhere in the Himalayas.” 

“Laurel,” Dinah warns quietly, “This really isn’t our place.”

“Sara is literally never going to tell her about it,” Laurel replies as they all walk over to a table.

“Tell me what?” Ava now is nervous for some reason. She has no reason to be but secrets always make her feel a bit on edge.

“You know how I told you earlier Oliver cheated on me with Sara? And Sara and I got into a huge fight?”

“Yeah?”

“Well, right after all that went down was when Sara spent time just travelling Asia. She had dropped out of college and just left.” Ava doesn’t know how to respond to that so she just nods. 

“Laurel, I really don’t think you should go into Sara and Nyssa’s history with Ava without Sara knowing,” Dinah says calmly. 

“Mom, she’ll be fine. I won’t go into much detail.”

“Let the record show I’m against this,” Dinah replies. “Go on, if you must.” The waitress interrupts them just as Laurel opens her mouth but Dinah just asks for a round of waters and absently motions for Laurel to continue.

“So, when Sara was in Nanda Parbat, she met Nyssa. I don’t know many details of how and where and why but, after her two year excursion, Sara and Nyssa were together. It was like that for a few years after. I think they were together for about four years altogether?”

“Oh,” Ava breathes out. She thinks Laurel is done and goes to open her menu but Laurel reaches over and puts her hand on the menu, pushing it back down gently.

“Yeah. They were together for a bit and Nyssa wanted to get married.”

“Oh,” Ava repeats, a little stronger than the last one.

“Nyssa wanted to get married and Sara originally agreed. They were crazy about each other but something happened. I have no idea what honestly happened but all of a sudden the wedding was off and Sara was moving to New York. To be honest, I don’t think Nyssa’s ever truly gotten over it,” Laurel pauses for a second, thinking, “It’s a little weird that she hadn’t told you she was engaged before.”

“Yeah, it is,” Ava takes a second to process the information, “But there’s plenty about me she doesn’t know, as well. And it’s not like she never mentioned Nyssa. Just left out that detail.” Laurel hums in acknowledgement and opens her menu, signaling to Ava storytime is officially over. Ultimately, the reason why Sara and Nyssa ended their engagement is none of her business but Ava still finds herself wondering what happened. If Rip Hunter is going to deepdive into their personal lives to make sure they’re not committing fraud, this quite possibly will come up. That’s how Ava justifies herself, at least. 

The rest of the lunch lacks the gossip that the first portion had but it’s surprisingly nice. Ava finds herself yet again enjoying the company of Sara’s mother and sister. She almost regrets that this is one of the last times she’ll see them. Right when Laurel launches into another story from their childhood, Ava’s phone buzzes. Ava apologizes as she checks the name on the message and quickly checks it.

**Sara Lance** (12:01)

_ Hey where are you guys? _

Ava looks around the restaurant, suddenly realizing she has absolutely no idea where exactly they are.

**Aves** (12:05)

_ Lunch? Somewhere in the city. _

**Sara Lance** (12:05)

_ Super helpful Aves _

Ava ignores the message and places her phone on the table facedown. 

“Was that Sara?” Dinah motions to the phone.

“Yeah, she’s just wondering where we are.” Ava’s phone buzzes again.

**Sara Lance** (12:07)

_ When will u be back? Gammy is asking a bunch of questions i don’t feel like fielding by myself _

**Aves** (12:08)

_ I have no idea. Soon? You can handle it. She’s your grandmother. _

“Honestly, it’s sweet that Sara is antsy for you to get back,” Laurel smiles. “I haven’t seen her this happy in a while.” Ava lets out an awkward, sharp laugh but tries to mask it with a cough.

Not long after that, the three of them make their way back to the car and head back to the Lance household. Ava is working the information she learned throughout the day over in her head and quietly realizes Sara is much more complex of a person than she ever gave her credit for before. She obviously knew she had a family and a life outside of work but it’s still odd to think about her in this context. Sara has a history. A complicated history. And Ava went and made it just that much more complicated with her whole ‘let’s get married’ thing. She tries to shrug it off, knowing both of them are getting something out of this deal, but can’t help but feel her first inkling of guilt at the ordeal.

When they pull into the driveway, Sara is sitting on the front steps playing on her phone and obviously hiding from the family members inside. Dinah gets out immediately to bring all of their bags into the house and Laurel smiles as she gets out of the car and calls over to her sister.

“You seriously are waiting for us outside? Jesus, Sara,” she laughs as she walks over to Sara.

“Okay, Laurel, don’t pretend you wouldn’t do the same thing if you were stuck alone with Gammy and Dad,” Sara says, giving her a quick hug. “How was shopping?” 

“Went well,” Laurel says, casting a look in Ava’s direction. “I had a good time telling her all of your secrets.”

“Jesus, Laurel, seriously?” Sara says as she lets go of her sister.

“Hey, she asked,” Laurel says, throwing her hands up in mock surrender. Sara then turns to Ava and walks towards her with a slight smile but definitely trying to look angry.

“Aves,” she starts.

“I asked  _ one _ thing and it was like opening the floodgates. She actually offered it up too so it wasn’t even my idea,” Ava says, closing the distance between them to place a quick kiss on Sara’s cheek. Sara turns red but Ava pretends not to notice.

“God, I hope it wasn’t anything too bad,” Sara says. “Laurel, I swear--”

“It was all just the truth,” Laurel winks as she walks inside.

“That one word choice you made will haunt me forever, Ava,” Sara says as she sits back down on the steps.

“Not going in?” Ava asks.

“Not quite yet. You go on without me,” Sara pulls her phone back out and Ava complies. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I've always thought Sara would be a purposefully annoying texter lol.
> 
> Sorry for the delay in this update! School got the most of my time. School and watching SVU lol. 
> 
> As always, I love your comments. Every single one makes me smile. Don't hesitate to reach out on twitter @skylawrites for whatever


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys! Sorry for such a late update. College got to me. Hopefully I'll be back on track with regular updates again but thank you so much for waiting!

Ava doesn’t know why she immediately just went inside without Sara but she decides to take it as an opportunity to listen to the Lances talk and to look at the pictures they have all over the walls. Since it’s Christmas Eve, a huge topic of conversation ends up being about the plans for that night and following day. Ava soaks as much of the schedule as she can so she’s not blindsided on Christmas by the plans. Her mind wanders back to the gifts she bought earlier that day. Anxiety fills her stomach as she thinks that maybe it was a little too much. After all, Ava had originally planned to not do gifts at all for Sara and, before all of this fell into place, she had planned to not even celebrate Christmas. Now, she’s stuck going to a Queen family function with her employee (who is now her “fiancée”) and her employee’s family. How the hell did she get in so deep? She knows the answer to that question but still likes to avoid the fact that this was mostly her doing.

Speaking of her fiancée, Ava realizes she has been alone for at least the past hour, nodding and smiling at whatever Sara’s Gammy was talking about. Excusing herself from the conversation, Ava walks over to the door to look for Sara. She wasn’t on the steps where she left her though so Ava steps into the hall to shoot Sara a text.

**Aves** (16:00)

_ Hey, where are you? _

She waits a second, staring at the screen as if that will make Sara respond faster. Before she can text her again, Dinah calls out from the kitchen, turning her attention in that direction.

“Ava? Can you and Sara give me a hand in here?” 

“Uh,” Ava glances at her phone again before slowly walking towards the kitchen. “Yeah, I can give you a hand. I don’t know where Sara is at the moment, though.”

“Oh,” Dinah turns to look at Ava as she walks into the kitchen. She doesn’t seem concerned at all, however. She motions for Ava to come over to the counter and holds out a bag for Ava to hold. “She’ll be back soon. She does this every holiday. She’s probably just taking a walk.” 

“Is there a reason she just disappears?” Ava asks, taking the bag as Dinah puts the tupperware filled with food for the next night into it.

“You know Sara,” Dinah says as she takes the bag back from Ava, “She needs a bit of time to herself before she is bombarded with family left and right. She should be back any second.” Ava just nods and checks her phone again. No new messages.

Just as Ava is about to go back into the living room, Sara pokes her head into the kitchen.

“What did I tell you?” Dinah smiles, “Back already! Sara, you really shouldn’t disappear on your fiancée like that. You had her worried.”

“Sorry, Aves. Can you come with me for a second, though?” Sara hasn’t taken her eyes off Ava since she showed back up making Ava’s mouth go dry so she nods in response and walks over to Sara. Sara grabs her arm and steers her up the stairs towards a room Ava can only assume was Sara’s.

“Woah, what are you doing?” Ava manages to get out when Sara practically shoves her in the room and closes the door behind them. 

“We have a problem,” Sara says as she strides over to the twin bed in the corner and plops down.

“What do you mean we have a problem?” The pit that had previously rested in Ava’s stomach when Sara was gone returns with vigor and intensity.

“I think my family knows this is a sham.”

“You’re kidding. They’re eating this up, Sara,” Ava sits gently on the bed next to her. 

“You didn’t know about Nyssa or Nanda Parbat,” Sara replies bluntly. 

“Wait, who told you I didn’t know about those things? I only just found out about them.”

“Laurel told me. She thought it was weird, Aves. Those were some of the most important years of my adult life. If we were dating for as long as we said we have been, it definitely would have been something you knew.”

“Nanda Parbat was the part of Asia you were in, right?” Sara just lets herself fall onto her back on the bed as a response. “You should have told me this stuff on the plane or something if it was so important.”

“You were too busy freaking out on the plane for me to get a word in about any of this!”

“That’s not true or remotely fair, Sara. We talked on the plane. You just didn’t mention any specifics. You have definitely had the time to tell me these things if you knew they were going to be make-it-or-break-it for them believing this relationship!”

“And you’ve definitely had the time any of the stuff you obviously have been keeping back!” Sara sits back up on the bed to look at Ava better, “Face it, Ava! We’re both keeping secrets that are ‘make-it-or-break-it.’”

“Then let’s stop!” Ava’s voice has definitely gotten louder than she previously wanted it to so she takes a breath to steady it before continuing.  “Let’s stop keeping secrets and just lay it all out on the table. Here and now.” 

“You seriously want to put everything out in the open?”

“Yes, Sara! That’s the only way this is going to ever work.”

“Okay, then, you first,” Sara crosses her arms and looks pointedly at Ava, daring her into this game of truth she set up.

“What do you want to know?” Ava doesn’t back down. Sara pauses a beat before opening her mouth to reply.

“Start with your family,” Ava tenses at the request. “See? That’s why. You freeze up and become rigid whenever they’re as much as mentioned. What the hell happened there?”

“They died,” Even to her own ears, Ava sounds small — smaller than she ever has. Sara just looks at her silently, waiting for her to continue. “You knew that already, though… You know I grew up in Vancouver and Fresno. I spent a good portion of my childhood in Fresno but I moved back to Vancouver after high school. University was just  _ so _ much more affordable there.” Ava pauses a long second and takes a shaky breath in. 

“Ava…” Sara starts but Ava ignores her.

“My sister had stayed in Fresno with my parents and… and they wanted to surprise me for Christmas. They got on a plane and I don’t know what happened honestly. The details are hazy. All I know is the plane went down and I lost the only three people I could ever depend on.” Before she even realizes she’s crying, Sara’s hand comes up and wipes the tears away.

“I’m so sorry, Aves,” She says, keeping her hand on Ava’s face. “I had no idea that’s what happened.”

“You couldn’t have,” Ava leans into the touch and Sara is suddenly very aware that she has been caressing Ava’s cheek for much longer than necessary and slowly retracts her hand. “I’m sorry I didn’t explain sooner.”

“Well I think we both have covered the fact that neither one of us wanted to discuss this stuff,” Sara gently laughs out. Ava smiles weakly, wipes the remainder of her tears away, and clears her throat harsher than necessary.

“Okay,” she begins. “It’s definitely your turn, Lance.”

“Okay. I told you where to start so I guess it’s only fair you tell me.”

“Nanda Parbat and Nyssa are literally the only logical choices here.”

“Okay but how far back are we talking?”

“Sara,” Ava sounds a bit annoyed so Sara decides to take it from the top.

“When I was in college, Laurel and Oliver Queen were dating.”

“Laurel told me that part already.”   
“Give me a moment, Sharpe. Thought you wanted the full story.”

“Sorry, go on.”

“Okay.  _ So. _ When I was in college, Laurel and Ollie were dating. They were dating for a few years at this point and things were pretty serious. Laurel loved him and I know Ollie loved her as well. He was a bit of a dumbass, though. He had a hard time with commitment and anything that came along with being an adult.”

“Is this just Oliver Queen’s backstory?”

“Ava, I let you talk. Stop interrupting me. I’ll get there. Anyways, Oliver and I were always pretty close. I loved him in my own way. I was young and stupid and never really thought things through. One thing led to another and Ollie and I hooked up. A few times. I thought I was in love. At one point, Ollie asked me to run away on a vacation with him. Laurel had no idea at first but, once word got out that Oliver Queen’s boat was marooned in the middle of the ocean without any fuel, our mom told her I was there with him. It was a whole ordeal, obviously. It was a lot. We were obviously safe after a little while but I didn’t go home with Oliver after that. I didn’t want… I didn’t want to see Laurel and face that mess. I made a mistake and I wasn’t ready to admit to it.”

“Where did you go, then?” Ava asks softly.

“Around,” Sara looks away from Ava and at a picture in a frame on the bureau, “I met Nyssa in a bar and she took me back with her to Nanda Parbat. It was something I thought of as a fling at first. Just fun with a hot woman I met on the other side of the world — far away from any of my responsibilities or mistakes. Turned into something a little more, obviously. I was crazy about her. She had saved my life a few times over. I just didn’t belong in Nanda Parbat anymore. I missed my sister even though I knew it would take a lot for her to forgive me. When I told Nyssa everything, she was incredibly cool with it — even with the me and Ollie thing and me being a huge asswipe not very long before I met her. So, instead of leaving her behind, she came with me back to Starling and we tried to make things work. I obviously reconciled with Laurel and my parents got over my disappearing without much of a trace for two years and Nyssa and I started building a semblance of a life together.”

“So what happened?”

“She wanted to get married.”

“And you didn’t?”

“No, I did. For a moment.”

“So what went wrong?”

“I came to my senses. I realized how young I was. I realized I still hadn’t finished college. I realized I didn’t want to just settle down yet. I loved Nyssa more than I had loved anyone before but I knew it was not the right time. So I broke it off. I broke off our engagement and moved to New York to finish school and, eventually, get a job at Waverider,” Sara looks over at Ava who she finds staring straight at her, “And then you came in so you should know the rest from there.”

“I’m sorry that all happened,” Ava says, still looking over at Sara.

“It’s no ‘my family died in a plane crash near Christmas’...” Sara suddenly feels self-conscious for thinking her story would be as difficult as Ava’s originally.

“No,” Ava’s softly laughs out, “But it still wasn’t easy for you. Just because no one died doesn’t mean it wasn’t an incredibly hard time for you, Sara. Plus, you almost died on the Queen’s boat.”

“I guess you’re right. Well, I guess all of that is out there now. Any more baggage I should know?” 

“I don’t think anything else as big as that,” Ava laughs. “Anything you want to know since we’re sharing?”

“Hmmm,” Sara puts her hand to her chin to stroke her invisibile beard, “I mean, I told you about my last big relationship. What about you? Who damaged you to the point where you need a fake fiancée?”

“Oh jeeze,” Ava leans back on the bed, propping herself up on her hands. “I don’t even remember when my last serious relationship was.”

“That’s a lie and you know it,” Sara follows Ava’s lead and leans back as well.

“Well, I guess there was this girl straight out of college that I was with for a little over a year. I just don’t have time anymore to get into anything serious.”

“That sounds… boring,” Sara says looking over at Ava with a hint of a smile on her face.

“Coming from the woman who also hasn’t had a real relationship in a number of years? Yeah okay sure. Throw those stones in that glass house, Lance,” Ava can’t keep the smile off her face.

“Okay, fine. You got a point, Sharpe, but don’t let it go to your head,” Sara lets herself smile now, too, “You know, being open with you like this is surprisingly nice.”

“Yeah?”

“Yeah.”

“Well it’s surprisingly nice to talk to you, too, Sara. Talk about real things, that is. Not just work stuff.”

“Are you, Ava Sharpe, calling our work conversations not real?” Sara gasps dramatically. Ava rolls her eyes at Sara ruining the nice moment they were having.

“Sara, you know what I meant.” 

“Did I?”

“Are you always this annoying?”

“You’re the one marrying me. You should know I am.”

“You know we’re not actually going to be a married couple, right, Sara?”

“Tell that to the US Government, Ava,” Sara smiles causing Ava to grimace the slightest bit.

“Literally the last thing I’d want to do.”

“Fair.” Just as that leaves Sara’s mouth, both of them freeze as they hear footsteps go up the staircase. “Shit.”

“Shit?” Ava asks as she watches as Sara stands up from the bed. “Sara, what are you doing?”

“Do you trust me?” Sara asks as she tosses the jacket she’s been wearing onto the floor. 

“Yes,” Ava quickly replies. “What are you—” Before she can finish the question, Sara unceremoniously takes her shirt off and gently pushes Ava down onto her back on the bed, hopping up onto the bed to straddle her right after. Ava’s hands instinctively go up to Sara’s waist as her breath catches in her throat. “Sara?”

“Is this okay?” Sara asks quietly. Ava doesn’t trust herself to open her mouth so she just nods her head. “If you feel uncomfortable, just tell me to stop and I will.” 

“Sara?” Dinah calls from the hallway. Instead of answering, Sara leans back and looks in Ava’s eyes. 

“What are you doing?” Ava breathes out.

“We’ve been up here for a while. My mom will expect that she’s about to walk in on us. Obviously she’s not going to but she needs to think she is,” Sara says quietly.

“You better be decent in there,” Sara’s grandmother calls from the hallway. Ava blushes at the idea that both Sara’s grandmother and mother are about to walk in on whatever is happening.

“Wouldn’t they knock? And wait for you to answer the door?” Ava asks. As if to prove her completely wrong, the door opens a crack. Not knowing what else to do, Ava leans up towards Sara and pauses a second. Sara silently nods, giving her the answer to an unasked question and closes the distance between them. The feeling, like the first time, is electric. Ava barely registers Sara’s hand on her cheek as she deepens the kiss and has to remind herself to keep breathing. One of her hands instinctively finds its way into Sara’s hair but that’s when she hears a throat clear.

“Knock, knock,” Dinah says, standing in the open doorway. Sara abruptly sits up, still stradling Ava, and whips her head around to look at her mother.

“Mom!” She says, a little hoarser than she expected herself to sound, jumping off Ava. “What happened to ‘I promise to knock on your door from now on’?” She grabs her shirt off the ground where she had thrown it moments before.

“Sara, you’ve been up here a while. We wanted to talk to you and Ava about a few things before the party tomorrow,” Dinah says, not backing down and moving to enter the room fully. 

“Fine,” Sara says as she slips her shirt back on. “Can you give us just a second, though?”

“Sure. Just make sure you two are downstairs within the next five minutes or gammy will be the one to walk in.” As soon as Dinah closes the door behind her, Ava manages to find her legs and springs up from the bed.

“Jesus, that was…”

“Something,” Sara finishes. She turns to look at a still wildly blushing Ava, “You good?”

“Yeah,” Ava says and clears her throat. “You?”

“Of course,” Sara says as if she wasn’t completely red as well. 

“We better get downstairs before your grandmother comes barging in,” Ava says, fixing her shirt which had rode up and was now hanging awkwardly on her. Sara walks over to Ava slowly and reaches up to her face. Ava’s breath catches for a moment, not knowing quite where Sara is headed up not wanting to ruin any moment that’s about to happen. Hesitating for half a second, Sara’s thumb finally connects with the side of Ava’s mouth as she rubs off some lipstick that had smeared. Ava finds her breath and lets a small sigh of relief escape.

“Sorry. Seems like I left a mark,” Sara smiles smally. “Got it, though. Wouldn’t’ve wanted Laurel to have seen that. She would’ve made fun of me for years to come.”

“What do you think your mom and grandmother want to talk to us about?” Ava asks, clearing her throat again and following Sara out of the room.

“Who knows. Probably some ground rules about the party and PDA,” Sara says as they reach the top of the stairs. When Ava goes to walk down them, Sara slides in front of her to stop her. “Seriously, if there’s anything you’re uncomfortable with in the whole ‘selling-the-relationship’ category, let me know and we can turn it down.” Ava never thought she’d have to have a conversation with her assistant about boundaries in PDA but here she is. In response, however, she just nods her head. Sara seems to find that a sufficient enough answer and turns around to walk down the staircase she was previously blocking.

When they reach the landing, Sara takes Ava’s hand and leads her to the dining room where she knows everyone would be waiting. Her grandma and mother are sitting at the table chatting about something quietly. That’s never a good sign. Quiet talking between the only two people in the room can mean an array of things and every single option makes Sara’s stomach drop.  _ They know. _ All Sara can think.  _ They know and they are not happy. _ Her grip on Ava’s hand gets a little tighter which elicits a fingernail to the back of Sara’s hand and a small glare.

“What’s up,” Sara asks, her voice higher than she means it to be in a botched attempt to sound relaxed. 

“Sit down,” Dinah says, gesturing to the chairs across from her and Sara’s grandma. Sara and Ava exchange an equally confused and worried look but follow the orders given to them.

“Is everything okay?” Ava asks, her voice noticeably lower than usual in an equally botched attempt to sound relaxed. 

“Everything’s  _ fine _ ,” Sara’s grandmother replies. That does nothing to alleviate the stress Sara feels in this situation. Everything is obviously  _ not _ fine. Everything is weird. Weird is not fine.

“Okay, what’s going on?” Sara asks bluntly. “You guys are acting really weird and, frankly, it’s freaking me out. What did you want to talk to us about?”

“Well…” Dinah starts and Ava suddenly feels the pit in her stomach as well. 

“Well….” Sara tries to coax out whatever they wanted to talk about.

“We were talking, your grandmother and I, and we were thinking.”

“Mom, you’re literally making this incredibly painful. What were you two thinking?”

“Well, we realize it’s not what you two probably had planned but all your friends and a lot of your family are in Starling so we were thinking, what if you two got married here?”

“Here?” Ava asks. The pit doesn’t lift from her stomach when she realizes she has no idea how to get out of this one. “I don’t know. We were thinking about just going to the courthouse.”

“Yeah, Mom. We really don’t want to make a big deal of things. Plus, I’m not even in Starling that often…”

“Well, that’s why we were thinking we could throw something together for next week. A New Year’s wedding!” Sara’s grandmother smiles. Sara glances at Ava who seems to have gone completely pale.

“I really don’t know, Gammy. We have to talk about this one,” Sara says.

“Sara, who knows if I’ll ever see a grandchild of mine get married! I mean, we’re talking about Laurel here.”

“That’s not fair,” Sara tries to hide her laughter. “Laurel is very desirable and totally marriage material.”

“Yeah, maybe when she retires.” Sara can’t help when a laugh escapes but Ava looks more conflicted than before.

“Just think about it, you two,” Dinah smiles at them. “We can do it in the backyard. You can invite your New York friends if you want! We just want to be there.”

“Before I  _ die _ ,” Sara’s grandma adds in.

“Okay!” Ava blurts out.

“Okay?” Sara smiles forcibly at her with wide, questioning eyes. 

“We’ll do it.”

“Ava,  _ darling _ , don’t you think we should  _ talk about this? _ ”

“I’m on board if you’re on board, babe,” Ava says returning the forced smile with scared eyes at her own words. Sara takes a quick, deep breath and looks back to her mother and grandmother, who are looking back at them with the widest smiles and bated breath.

“Okay! We’re getting married here, I guess. But, we’re keeping it small, okay?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> reach out to me at @skylawrites on twitter!


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